A Different Sensei
by bradw316
Summary: AU Story, Naruto, Sakura, and Sasuke get a different sensei one that actually teaches them things. Sakura also finds out that Sasuke is in realty a big freakin' jerk. Naruto/Sakura pairing, major Sasuke bashing. Rated M for language and innuendoes
1. Prologue and Chapter 1 Edited

Prologue Opening

_Night of the Kyuubi attack after the sealing_

Hiryu Himura and Itachi Uchiha raced from the battlefield shortly after the fox had vanished; both had been one of the few to see the Chakra chains holding the huge Biju down preventing it from causing more damage. Both were also very fearful for their sensei, thankfully Itachi's Sharingan had traced the fox to its location as it began to spiral downward no doubt being resealed. What they came upon was a crying infant and two prone figures lying around the infant both with sad smiles on their faces. "Sensei?!" Itachi cried out running to the prone figures.

Hiryu stood calmly assessing the situation looking as distraught as his teammate, "They're gone Itachi," Hiryu was a rather plain looking person with short brown hair that parted from the mid left of his head to the right giving it kind of a smooth wave, he had bright blue eyes that seem to sparkle. His contributions to his team however made him slightly stronger than Itachi terms of ninjutsu; but it is his speed in both taijutsu and kenjutsu which made him almost god like so much so that even the Hiraishin could barely catch him, Kushina had been proud of him in this regard. The sword he carried strapped to his back was black with a metallic silver edge; the handle guard was in the shape of a swastika with an all-black hilt. Hiryu gently picked up the infant, tears lightly falling from his cheeks. "Itachi, we should seal them up. We can't have sensei and her husband just lying here on the ground." Neither moved to wrapped up in their grief to do anything at the moment.

The dark haired teen's feelings of intense sadness and regret cascaded over the young boy; he had been looking after his baby brother until he spotted the chakra chains. Leaving Sasuke in the care of an aunt he went out to search for his teammates finding them they split up to look for their sensei hoping against hope the Kyuubi was just some elaborate genjutsu, that was until the first strike from the fox's tail slammed into the ground and the huge earthquake afterward. He looked up at the infant that Hiryu held, "Is that Naruto?"

Hiryu nodded sadly, "Can't you tell the whisker marks must be the influence of the fox's chakra while Kushina-sensei was carrying him," the young man sat down holding the infant who was still crying, he couldn't really blame the infant at all. Looking at the seal on the child's stomach noting it was the death reaper seal. "Sensei and Lord Minato must have called the Shinigami to seal the fox inside Naruto."

"What do you think will happen to him?" Itachi asked.

"He has only one living relative that I know of but I doubt she's in any condition to look after a child," Hiryu stated gently rocking Naruto, eyes closed in thought, "Orphanage sounds like the most likely scenario."

"What about Jiraiya or my mother, they're his godparents," Itachi explained.

"Itachi, Lord Jiraiya's spy network will force him to stay away for long periods of time. As for your mom, do you really think after what happened tonight that the civilian council will let a clan of the only two known kekkei genkai that can control a biju in the world have twenty-four hour access to him?" Hiryu stated hearing in the distance people heading in their direction.

Itachi winced cradling his sensei's head in his lap gently trying to wipe the blood off her chin and mouth. Tears began to fall again looking down at the woman who basically became a second mother to him, "I will become an ANBU so I can look after my sensei's son."

"So you made up your mind about the promotion," Hiryu stated seeing a nod. "I'll put my mine off a few years, become Naruto's Jonin sensei."

"Didn't Kakashi ask for that privilege?" Itachi asked.

Hiryu scoffed, "Don't get me wrong Kakashi is a great shinobi and he deserves his accolades, but as a sensei to future shinobi he'll be terrible."

"How will Hana react to how sensei passed?" the Uchiha asked.

Hiryu sighed heavily, "I'll deal with it, if anything it'll give me a chance to hold her," he stated the last part with a sad smile.

XXX

Sarutobi sat behind a desk he thought he never would sit behind again getting the final reports from all those in involved. He looked at the picture of his wife, mourning her loss, it was determined quickly that her death wasn't caused by the Kyuubi. Someone had penetrated the protective wards and killed the ANBU assigned to protect Minato, Kushina, and his wife. But the speculation behind that had to wait as the two people who arrived on the seen first were standing across from him now.

"No trace was found of any suspect at where Lord Minato and Kushina-sensei were found at," Hiryu stated. "All Itachi and I saw was Naruto-kun and the two bodies," the browned haired young man stated sadly looking down. "How is he, by the way?"

"Resting though I suspect as any infant does that he knows he was orphaned tonight," Sarutobi explained with a heavy sigh.

"Who's going to take him in, Lord Jiraiya, my mother, or Lady Tsunade?" Itachi asked.

"Jiraiya has been informed sad to say it'll probably be weeks before I hear from him, the civilian council has already denied Mikoto's godparenting rights on the grounds that it was possibly an Uchiha that brought Kyuubi out of the seal, until the evidence can disclaim it I'm inclined to agree with their judgment on this matter. As for Tsunade I don't know how far their blood relation is to warrant bringing her back to raise a child."

"Orphanage?" Hiryu's one word question sounded almost like a statement.

Sarutobi nodded, "But it will be doubtful he'll ever be adopted though I've heard Mebuki Haruno and Minoru Higashi have asking about him."

"I don't remember who they were?" Hiryu asked.

"Mebuki is a member of the civilian council and runs the village library has a daughter a few months older than Naruto. Minoru is the weapon smith and has a daughter a year older than Naruto. Minoru was Kushina's former teammate and Mebuki was a family friend," Sarutobi stated placing his hands under his chin. "I doubt either will get him, even with her influence Mebuki and the village council will spend years fighting over him while the rest of the village will no doubt ignore or belittle him."

Itachi stepped forward, "I wish to enlist into the ANBU and be assigned to any detail that will guard Naruto from any assassination attempts."

"Are you sure Itachi, ANBU is a tough life and you will be assigned other missions on the side," Sarutobi asked.

"It is for sensei that I do this. I will watch out for her son," Itachi stated firmly watching the old man first sigh then nod.

"And you Hiryu?" Sarutobi glanced at the other boy.

"When Naruto graduates from the academy as I know he'll want to join at some point, I wish to be his Jonin-sensei," Hiryu stated.

"Kakashi has asked the same he feels obligated to do so for both Minato and Obito, what makes you a better candidate?" Sarutobi asked in earnest.

"Kakashi is a great shinobi I do not doubt that, however he is lazy, unmotivated, will play one student against another to create rivalry. While the last is a good idea but in some cases can bring resentment and sometimes," Hiryu looked pointedly at the third, "create an imbalance in one or both shinobi. Example would be Orochimaru and what caused him to do what he's done."

Sarutobi winced at this example, one of the many learning points he had in his life and one that had cause him the most pain. "I see your point, what would you do?"

"Teach them like Kushina-sensei taught me; she treated her team like an extension of her family. Be kind, be fair, be truthful, and stay true to your Nindo," out the corner of his eye he saw Itachi nod in response to Kushina's first speech.

Sarutobi smiled softly, "Sounds like something Kushina would say, she was always a cheerful girl. Very well I'll put you in as Naruto's Jonin sensei when he passes the exams."

"Thank you, Lord Hokage I just hope Kushina-sensei and Lord Minato will watch over their son alongside Kami. I also hope that one day Naruto becomes Hokage like his mother wanted," Hiryu chuckled sadly.

XXX Chapter 1 XXX

Hiruzen Sarutobi sat at his desk as nine Jonin had gathered to await his announcement of what three genin they would take under their wing and train to become the future Chunin and Jonin of the Hidden Leaf. Many of the Jonin consider it a great pride to train the next generation. Sarutobi himself had both great pride and great anguish at the three students he had trained, to which they earned themselves so many such accolades but two had fallen to vices and the last had fallen into madness. But that was neither here nor there anymore; it was time for the next group of Jonin to achieve a measure of pride and accomplishment. "Gather round it is time," the old man smiled seeing the group stop conversing and stood facing him, he glanced around the room and sigh seeing one missing. "Kakashi will just have to wait for his assignment."

He began naming off groups to first six, when team seven was about to be announce, Kakashi finally appeared. "Team Seven consisting of Naruto Uzumaki, Sakura Haruno, and Sasuke Uchiha, will be assigned to Hiryu Himura." Kakashi lowered his head slightly but said nothing he knew this had already been set up thirteen years ago and the argument against him training his sensei's son had been a very good one, he didn't know how to teach back then and unfortunately his inability to teach was still present even after three tries at the academy some being very comical attempts.

When the rest of the teams had finished Kakashi, Hiryu, and the Hokage were the only ones left in the room. "Kakashi you are not being totally left out of his training, please understand that, you and Lord Jiraiya are the only ones that know Lord Minato's Rasengan and the fact it needs to be completed. I will ask Lord Jiraiya to train him in the Rasengan when he is ready and ask you to teach him how to complete it depending on what element Naruto has."

Kakashi nods giving a small smile, "And Sasuke?"

"If I can lift the anger and hatred in his heart then yes, I'll send him to you for training if not then I will turn him over to Inoichi for evaluation then a recommendation to have him removed from the Shinobi program and have his chakra sealed," Hiryu stated firmly.

"That bad, huh?" Sarutobi asked.

"His mind right now is solely devoted to avenging his clan and nothing else, what I find hard to believe is the fact that Itachi killed his mother. Or he had someone else with him that did the deed for him, he knew what it meant and somehow this other person prevented Naruto from obtaining a family," Hiryu stated.

"What do you mean?" Kakashi asked.

"You know who Naruto's godmother was Kakashi, she would have been free of her clan and had her rights as Naruto's guardian reinstated. I do not believe it was Itachi or even his accomplice if he had one to do this deed," he held up a crime scene photo of that night which showed Fugaku prone form lying across Mikoto. "Many would consider this photo as evidence that Fugaku died protecting his wife, if that was the case Fugaku's body should have been the one underneath not the other way round. If Fugaku was protecting her he would have died first or had been injured first and Mikoto would have been the one prone over him trying to protect him."

"Mikoto had been attacked first," Sarutobi's eyes widen looking at the photo taking in every detail and spotted something. "The pool of blood it's centered behind Mikoto's body around her torso."

Hiryu nodded his face grim. "Yes, Itachi would have wanted to end his mother's life quick a stab to the heart or her brain. Also take in the fact that there are no foot prints in the blood pool," Hiryu's eyes closed. "I believe Fugaku killed his own wife in the chaos of that night probably believing his benefactor in the coup de tat that was coming, and would help him. Instead his son killed him as evidence by the stab to his heart."

Sarutobi sat down putting his hands under his chin looking at the photo shaking his head mournfully. "Now it begs the question, who was Fugaku's benefactor?"

Hiryu nodded and frowned, "Whoever stood to gain with the village being unstable outside the other hidden villages, my money would be on Danzo or Orochimaru, maybe both."

"Evidence is slim at best and I would need a lot more to go on, but with this I can make a case that Fugaku wasn't acting alone and that he murdered his wife," Sarutobi looked at the plain looking young man. "Best get going, your students are waiting." Hiryu nodded and shunshin out of the room leaving Kakashi and Sarutobi alone. "Kakashi, I'm giving you an S-Rank mission with orders to have it completed before the Chunin Exams."

"The mission?" Kakashi asked.

"Find out who among the Shinobi and Civilian council were involved in the Uchiha attempted coup de tat, if possible, I want them taken care of quietly, I'm assigning Yamato and Yuugao as your squadmates for this assignment. I'm sick and tired of Danzo constantly undermining my authority, but I can't attack him directly."

"So take out his conspirators and destroy his subtle power base in the council," Kakashi nodded. "This isn't just because Mikoto?"

"No this is for Naruto; Mikoto was simply the final straw. The Massacre was a necessary evil to preserve village stability, but Mikoto was never involved and I've always found it strange Itachi killed her," the old man held up the photo eyes flashing in anger. "But this proves one thing, Naruto's life is being made more difficult than I first thought, and it is going to end NOW!" the old man slammed his fist onto his desk shattering it into a million pieces. Kakashi's eyes grew wide seeing the unexpected power the old man before him just displayed and how cold he sounded. The once dwindling fire in the old Hokage had been reignited and was fixed to burn anything and everything in its path. "You have your assignment Kakashi, get to it."

Kakashi bowed and shunshin from the room as Sarutobi walked to the office door, "I need a new desk something a bit sturdier, oh and make sure it has a nice dark finish to it." His secretary nodded dumbly.

XXX

Naruto paced impatiently while every now and then glancing at the door contemplating setting up a prank on their sensei for being late, when the door opened. In walked one of the most unassuming people the whisker marked blonde had ever seen before in his life. Short smooth brown hair, blue eyes, wearing the standard Jonin outfit and strapped to his back was a sword, he wore his shinobi head band around his neck like a collar. "I'm sorry for being late, was in a meeting with the Hokage," the man stated with a friendly smile.

"Its okay sensei," Sakura stated cheerfully.

"Excellent, now let's go to the roof and proceed with a little chit chat, like to get know my team," the unassuming Jonin stated. A few minutes later the foursome were gathered around a set of small benches sitting facing one another. "This will be simple, I will tell you a bit about myself and you will do the same, maybe find out about your teammates a little more. First before introductions are made I like to point out something, I do not tolerate, fangirlism, acts of betrayal, or avengers among other things," he glanced mainly at Sakura and Sasuke; one looked a bit down the other looked absolutely livid. "Aside from that, I hope we can be a good team together. Now I'll introduce myself. My name is Hiryu Himura, Elite Jonin S-Ranked. My former team was Hana Inuzuka and Itachi Uchiha," he watched Sasuke's eyes flash in shock; Hiryu smirked slightly to himself before revealing something equally juicy. "My Jonin captain was Kushina Uzumaki."

"U-Uzumaki?" Naruto's voice squeaked.

"Yes, Naruto I was trained by your mother," Hiryu stated watching the myriad of emotions run along his face. "She died the night of Kyuubi attack alongside your father, I'm afraid I can't give more about him mainly because of the amount of enemies he had and your current skills."

Naruto nodded tears at the corner of his eyes, "D-Did they…,"

Sakura simply looked confused she hadn't seen Naruto act like this the entire time at the academy, he was usually so loud and annoying. She a part of her suddenly felt badly about how she often thought of him and treated him.

"Yes, Naruto I know for a fact that they loved you very much," Hiryu chuckled slightly. "Sensei often times wouldn't shut up about parading you around the village in your stroller, bragging about how cute you were going to be and how many girlfriends you were going to have when you got older. To quote the Nara, it was really troublesome."

Naruto chuckled sadly lowering his head to hide the new tears forming, Hiryu sighed reaching up and gently rubbing the boy's head. "Take your time Naruto. Now onto my likes. I love my fiancée, BBQ Chicken, and anything to do with history, my fiancée constantly tells I'm a History otaku. My dislikes are traitors, those that cannot tell the difference between a kunai and the storage scroll to which it is sealed in," he stated looking at Naruto's bowed head pointedly who seemed to tense a second before relaxing even more. "I also hate written test as they suck and make my head hurt," he chuckles seeing Sasuke smirk and Sakura frown, he saw Naruto clutching his sides suddenly all sense of melancholy had flown out the window laughing his head off. Once Naruto had calmed down he continued. "Dreams for the future I have already achieved one, I'm engaged to the woman I love. As for my second dream it is to train a future Hokage."

"Sensei why do you have two dreams?" Sakura asked.

"Simple dreams are the ultimate goal in one's life, once you've achieved that dream there would be nothing left for you to do afterward, so you set another dream and proceed from there. Goals are smaller dreams that can be easy or hard to achieve, depending. My first dream was to win the heart of the girl that I fell in love with," he saw Sakura's eyes seem to dart toward Sasuke. "She wasn't my school crush either, I found my school crush to be shallow and very one dimensional as well as one sided, she wanted nothing to do with me. I gradually came to accept that and before she left with her sensei we became great friends I wish her all the luck in the world."

Sakura looked a bit deflated but nodded, "Why don't you introduce yourself?"

"My name is Sakura Haruno, I like my mom, reading, and learning new things," Sakura stated restraining her rampant fangirlism, focusing on only things she knew of without resorting to her school girl crush. "The things that I hate," she frowned a moment at first she wanted to scream Naruto's name but that wasn't true she just found him annoying and deep down she found his attention was flattering. But she had deeper dislikes that had been there since she was four. "I hate people making fun of my hair or my forehead."

Hiryu's eyes widen thinking back to when Kushina introduced herself to his team, _By Kami that almost sounded like Kushina-sensei for a moment_.

"But Sakura-chan, I like your forehead and your hair, I think it's really cool," Naruto stated.

Sakura blushed slightly not expecting that, "M-My dreams for the future," she thought about it long and hard, "I don't know," she said sadly.

She felt Hiryu's hand on her shoulder she looked up and saw a small smile. "It will come to you given enough time." Sakura smiled and nodded before subtly glancing at Naruto, finding his comments had left her heart beating a bit faster and wondered why. "Now onto the last member."

"Sasuke Uchiha, I don't like a lot of things, hate a lot of things, and I have a goal that I will make a reality," the Uchiha stated keeping it vague and keeping his thoughts of revenge to himself.

"I see," Hiryu frowned when the boy didn't clarify more. "At any rate tomorrow will be the final Genin exam," he chuckled at their expressions. "Did you seriously believe that three basic jutsu, a written test, and a taijutsu spar would grant you passage into the shinobi world," he watched each of them look uncertain. "You truly have a lot to learn, meet me at training ground seven at nine in the morning, eat hardy," he looks at Sakura, "no dieting, shinobi need all the complex carbohydrates they can get to maintain the energy they need to perform jutsu. It was tolerated in the academy as you were not facing life or death situations, from this moment on I expect you to eat like every meal is your last. To quote Kushina-sensei, every paycheck is a fortune, every meal a banquet, and everywhere you sleep is a five star resort, OORAH!"

"Wow mom was badass, believe it!" Naruto chirped happily, Sasuke raised an eyebrow while Sakura looked sick mostly at the pictures.

"Yes she was, the second strongest shinobi in the Hidden Leaf at the time with the fourth topping her slightly," Hiryu explained then handed Naruto something, "here Naruto this is a team picture I have taken just after we we're assigned to her." The three young teens looked at the picture; the thing they notice was how beautiful Kushina Uzumaki was.

"Wow Naruto, that's your mom," Sakura stated in awe not entirely sure what she was expecting, the image she painted after hearing Hiryu's quote didn't seem to match what she saw in the photo. _Then again, Naruto has always been unpredictable, guess I know where he got it from now_. She and the rest of team seven took in the rest of the photo. Hiryu was on Kushina's right in the photo holding up a peace sign while trying to smile which was apparently being made difficult by two things a puppy on his head and the wild looking girl who had thrown her arm around his neck. The wild looking girl had her hair pulled back in a tight ponytail, dressed in a yellow tank top, camouflage pants, she also had a puppy on her head with her free hand she was making her own peace sign she had a huge smile on her face. The last figure was easily recognizable by Sasuke who tried to maintain an impassive frown only to come off looking confused. In this photo his brother was actually smiling though his looked a bit strained, holding up his rather stoic peace sign with a puppy on his head as well. Kushina wore a beige battle dress similar to Kurenai with a few minor differences she also held up a peace sign and her smile was just as big as Hana's. "Um, sensei what kind of unit was yours?"

"Ah picked up on that already, as you may have guess with teams 8 and 10 they have specific unit tactic. Team 8 will be a primary hunting and tracking team, Team 10 is a capture and resonance team, ours is infiltration and elimination," Hiryu stated noting Sakura's face get pale. "You have nothing to worry about in terms of actual elimination until you're older. However infiltration is about one thing and that is stealth. My old team was primarily a tracking and elimination team. Hana-chan would track our targets then Itachi and I did the elimination, she was also our back up and medic-nin, if things got too tough for us Kushina-sensei would step in and take care of it."

"How many times did she have to step in?" Sasuke asked.

"Early on when we we're starting out I'd say once every other mission, usually when it involved a missing-nin of an A rank or higher," Hiryu explained. "Your brother did not become the person he is now overnight Sasuke, his strength happened gradually." Hiryu rubbed his chin thinking about something for a few minutes and sighed. "I can't do it; sensei would come out of her grave to get me if I did." The plain looking man groaned. "The Hokage is going to chew me out a bit for this but screw it, we will not conduct the final Genin test tomorrow. So you all are officially genin as of right now."

"R-Really sensei?" Naruto asked.

"But tomorrow I will test each of individually; I want to see your strengths and weaknesses, so we can strengthen your weaknesses and refine your strengths. You all can go." Hiryu watched the three leave and looked at the photo a sad smile on his face.

A second later however a shadow appear, looking up he saw Naruto holding his right arm nervously, holding up the photo, Naruto took it gently. "Thank you, sensei."

"I never did get your introduction Naruto," the plain faced man stated.

"I'm Naruto Uzumaki, son of Kushina Uzumaki, my likes are ramen, training, Teuchi Ichiraku and his daughter Ayame, Iruka-sensei, Hiryu-sensei, and the old man Hokage. My dislikes are traitors and hypocrites. My dreams for the future are to marry Sakura-chan and become Hokage to make my mom proud of me, believe it!"

Hiryu smiled as Naruto left, "I know she is already very proud of you Naruto," he whispered and felt two very warm arms wrap around his neck.

"How's my alpha male doing?" Hana whispered.

"Feeling a bit nostalgic," Hiryu smirked turning his head and kissing the Inuzuka woman. "How's Kiba?"

"Ugh, that brat has not shut up about being teamed up with Hinata, I just know he's going to drive me crazy with it all day," Hana groaned sliding into her fiancée's lap. "Can I stay with Anko tonight?"

Hiryu chuckled, "I seemed to recall you doing the same thing when you got assigned to Kushina-sensei's team."

Hana pouted and blushed, "Oh yeah, I still can't believe you had that crush on Shizune, I was practically throwing myself at your feet like I was in heat and you'd ignore me."

"Yes, but I came around eventually," Hiryu stated softly nuzzling the wild looking young woman's nose. "And you spent nearly a year and a half playing hard to get, just to make sure I wasn't faking it."

Hana's face turned solemn, "I didn't want my heart broken if turned out to be some ruse to get Shizune jealous."

Hiryu nodded holding the woman close, "I know and I'm sorry for being such a stubborn male, can you forgive me."

"Hmm," Hana tapped her chin thinking. "If you take me and make me scream your name at least twice I think I can forgive you."

"You're an insatiable bitch you know that?" Hiryu snickered.

Hana smirked darkly, "Yes, but I'm your insatiable bitch and don't you forget it, I've claimed you and no other female can have you."

Hiryu kissed her long and hard, "Hmm I like the sound of that."

Author's Note: First of the edited rewrites for this fic hopefully they'll go by fast and I'll have the new chapter up before the end of the day.


	2. Chapter 2 edited

Chapter 2

Naruto was the first to appear at the designated training area followed closely by Sasuke, then Sakura. Hiryu appeared only fifteen minutes later with a smile as the two waved to him while the third just turned to acknowledge him. "Good morning sensei," was Sakura's pleasant reply.

"Morning Sakura, did you all eat hardy?" Hiryu asked, to which all three genin nodded. "Good because in replacement for allowing you to forego the regular final assessment most genin go through and the old man ripping me a new one," Naruto laughed. "I as I said yesterday will be testing your strengths and weaknesses to help decide how you will be trained. Sasuke step forward, you will be first," The Uchiha smirked slightly before stepping forward. "We will conduct a spar for however long you last. Display all your known jutsu and fighting prowess," As soon as he finished speaking he launched at Sasuke, both fought and the Uchiha brought out every jutsu he knew before his sensei knocked him to the ground.

Sasuke looked up from his spot on the ground breathing heavily, Hiryu frowned slightly, "What?" the Uchiha asked.

"I must admit your speed is impressive and you grasp your family's taijutsu very well, but it was your Great Fireball Jutsu that seemed off to me. Tell me have you always had trouble with it?" Hiryu asked.

"Yes, father constantly stated his disappointment at it," Sasuke grudgingly admitted.

Hiryu nodded and this time he smiled, "I see and…I may know the reason for it, your elemental affinity is not that of fire. Your brother and your father were both aligned closely with fire, you however I believe may have inherited your mother's affinity."

Sasuke sat up looking a bit confused. "Affinity?"

"I'll explain after the other spars, please sit down Sasuke and relax," Hiryu turned to his other two squad members. "Sakura your turn, again everything that you know," he stated and watched her charge at him causing him to smile just a bit. After a few minutes she, like Sasuke, had been knocked to the ground breathing heavily in exhaustion and some minor pain. She looked up waiting for her assessment what she saw wasn't very encouraging. "Sakura you're from a civilian clan correct?"

"Y-Yes sensei, my father was a merchant and my mother is currently serving on the civilian council," Sakura stated softly.

Hiryu smacked his forehead before chuckling, "Of course you're Mebuki's daughter. I guess this explains the academy only jutsu and taijutsu. You have such remarkable control over your chakra I could feel it in every punch and kick you made," he gently helped the girl up before crossing his arms tapping his chin in thought. "I wonder if you would be good as a medic-nin…?"

"Medic-nin?" Sakura asked looking just as confused as Sasuke had been before she walked over to join her teammates.

"Again I will explain all my external musings in a bit. I kind of like voicing my general thoughts makes me sound smarter, now Naruto it's your turn," Hiryu smiled watching as the blonde practically bounced over to stand before him getting into a very strange stance. Hiryu struggled to keep the frown at his face looking at it, if anything he thought that Naruto would have been taught the same basics as Sakura, what he saw didn't match. In an unseen signal Naruto launched at him. During the course of the spar which lasted just slightly longer than Sasuke's, mainly because of Naruto's insane stamina, Hiryu's face lost its neutral setting as a frown rapidly replaced it and only grew deeper as the spar went on. Just after the blonde jinchuuriki dropped to the ground for the final time, "Kushina-sensei would be rolling in her grave right now," he stated sadly. Noting Naruto's face became downcast at this comment, "not at you Naruto," The boy looked at him in confusion for a moment. "How much did your instructor teach you in Taijutsu?"

"Not much sensei," Sasuke stated causing both his teammates to look at him.

"Any particular reason they give?" Hiryu asked eyes becoming lidded a bit knowing the real answer, when Sasuke confirmed it with a shake of his head. "I see," The plain looking Jonin helped Naruto to his feet. "My assessment of each of you is this, Sasuke while your other skills are impressive your elemental ninjutsu needs to be tested to see which affinity you have, though I suspect you have lightning and not fire."

Sasuke nodded still confused about the talk of affinities and the fact that he should be doing lightning ninjutsu instead of fire. "Sakura for someone from a civilian family your ability to grasp academy basics is very promising and your chakra control is something that Lady Tsunade of the Sannin and Kushina-sensei would have been very proud to have," Hiryu smiled at the fact the girl was practically beaming at his praise. "As such, I believe you would do great as a medic-nin." Sakura looked confused at what a medic-nin was at first before she searched through her memory on her classes and remembered what it meant.

"You mean I could become a doctor like Princess Tsunade?" the rosette haired girl asked her face.

"Very plausible, now," Hiryu turned to Naruto who looked extremely depressed. "Cheer up Naruto, remember this was to assess what needs to be worked on to make you stronger, just so happens I need to fix the sabotage done by the majority of your teachers and I hope Kushina-sensei beats the unholy shit out them when they finally meet her in the afterlife. Thankfully you have a single jutsu that will allow you to progress at a more rapid pace so you will not be left behind and I'll explain in a few what that means," Naruto nods his face looking slightly more cheerful.

XXX

The plain looking Jonin pulled out three pieces of plain white paper, "This is Chakra paper," the three genin looked at the paper. "I don't know how much is taught in the terms of affinities since I was at the academy, but to clarify each of us have an aligned affinity, earth, water, wind, lightning, or fire, most kekkei genkai can mix and match these to create offshoots, like wood, ice, lava, etc."

"You mean like the First Hokage?" Sakura stated remembering her history lesson.

"Yes, he used his affinity for earth and water to create wood, I heard there were two clans in the Hidden Mist village that had the ability to create ice using water and wind, and another clan who could use earth and fire to create lava. But I'm getting off track, each of us have an aligned affinity but that doesn't mean we can't use others it is just more difficult to accomplish," Hiryu turned to Sasuke. "That is why I believe you have your mother's affinity for lightning Sasuke, as you have said earlier of your difficulty using your fire jutsu," he pulled out another piece of chakra paper, "now to use this to test your affinity you simply channel chakra into the paper like you would before throwing a kunai or shuriken. The paper will give off five reactions, fire burns the paper, water will get the paper soggy, earth will turn the paper to dust, lightning will crumple the paper up, and wind will cut the paper in half. Watch," with Hiryu channel chakra into the paper and it promptly got soaked. "As you see my main affinity is water as my family migrated here after the last war from a village near the Hidden Mist. I was very lucky to get Kushina-sensei as my Jonin captain as she was from the Hidden Whirlpool village and as such she knew lots of water jutsu."

Naruto went first his paper sliced in half, "I'm wind?"

"Interesting, seems you have inherited your father's affinity Naruto extremely rare here in the Hidden Leaf, but I know someone who can help you with any wind based jutsu so no worries," Hiryu patted the blonde on the shoulder turning to Sakura looked down right confused. The paper was split and it was soaked, causing the Jonin to raise his eyebrow with genuine interest. "Water and Wind, our little Sakura is indeed full of surprises it seems. I will need to talk to your mother; it is very rare to have two affinities without having a kekkei genkai attached to it. Outside of that looks like you and Naruto will be having joint training in wind jutsu," Sakura nodded while Naruto was practically trying to keep his face from splitting at the amount of joy he was feeling being able to learn wind jutsu alongside her.

Sasuke had done the same and confirmed Hiryu's suspicions as the paper was crumpled in the Uchiha's outstretch palm. "You were right sensei, lightning."

Hiryu nods and smirks, "Best suggestion I can give is look into to your mother's journals, she always wrote down her jutsu, the handsigns, whether she had copied them or made up her own." Sasuke nodded mentally cursing himself at the realization that this entire time he had been training in the wrong affinity.

Hiryu pulled out a scroll and wrote down something on it before rolling it back up tucking it into one of his flak jacket pockets. "Now for Naruto your taijutsu is horrific at best, criminal at worst. I'm going to inform the Hokage and let me into your parent's personal vault and pull out some of their taijutsu scrolls for you to study."

"I have a vault?" Naruto asked.

"Yes, though most have been held in trust till you reach your eighteenth birthday which has been supplemented with money from your godfather from sales of his books and a special trust from godmother after she was killed six years ago," Hiryu stated.

"Wait, I have godparents?" Naruto looked hurt.

Hiryu nodded wincing slightly at the boy's expression dropping to one knee. "Listen when the time comes you can beat your godfather to the ground for neglecting his duty which he certainly deserves, his excuse while a good one still doesn't give him the right to not see you on occasion. Your godmother on the other hand had been denied her guardian rights by the majority of the civilian council," the plain looking jonin explained. "If they allowed it though things might have been easier but I would have worried about it more on the night of the Uchiha Massacre."

"Why would Naruto care about what happened to my clan?" Sasuke asked heatedly.

"Aside from being an upstanding human being to care about when a potential friend loses his family," Hiryu stated which caused the Uchiha to lose the fire in his eyes a bit. "He lost his godmother that night, Sasuke, your mother."

"M-My mother was his godmother?" Sasuke looked stunned.

"Just as his mother was yours," Hiryu stated making the Uchiha slump to the ground his mine blown at the implications. A few seconds later Naruto joined him but were looking at their hands like they never seen them before. "This will be the end of the lecture time today, you and Naruto need to let this sink in and I have an errand for Sakura to run."

"What do you need, sensei?" Sakura was just as stunned by these revelations as Hiryu handed her the rolled up scroll he written on earlier.

"Give this to Hana Inuzuka, stay until she gives you a reply, she'll be at her clan's compound no doubt running the veterinary clinic," Hiryu instructed seeing the girl nod before she ran off. The plain looking Jonin turned to look at his students shaking his head.

XXX

Sakura Haruno looked down at the scroll she was given as she walked toward the Inuzuka clan compound. She had walked by the huge compound several times with her mother, always hearing the nin-dogs barking periodically, or heard the Matriarch of the clan barking out orders to her clan mates, Kiba, or the nin-dogs. Sometimes the smell near the kennels got bad but otherwise the place had that pseudo peaceful yet wild vibe to it. The Inuzuka compound was also home to the Leaf village veterinarian clinic, where people brought their pets for check-ups, healing for diseases, and other things of that nature. It was also rumored that during these check-ups that a little cat demon Tora as it was called broke free and ran for the hills. The rosette haired girl often asked what this cat really was and got vague descriptions aside from the fact that it was the bane of the Genin's existence.

Coming to the main house of the compound she politely knocked, a few minutes later her classmate opened it, "Sakura, what are you doing here?" Kiba asked looking genuinely confused he currently wasn't wearing his fur lined coat or his headband.

"I'm on an errand for my sensei, he told me to give your sister a scroll," the rosette haired girl responded.

"Really, well come in, I'll go get her," Kiba yawned a bit scratching his head which Akamaru had to dodge as he disappeared into the back of the house.

Sakura took off her sandals and put on the house shoes provided for guests waiting for Kiba's sister to appear taking in the front room, it was simple with a few family photos and a framed picture of Tsume with her former team, which ironically looked much like the current team 8, Hiashi Hyuga, Tsume Inuzuka, and Shibi Aburame as young teens and a non-descript Jonin with red eyes. _Might be a relative of that woman that picked up Kiba, Hinata, and Shino_. Next to that photo was the one Hiryu had shown his team. Sakura became enthralled by this photo again; she was just floored at how beautiful Naruto's mother had been. The more she looked at the photo though she could see some of the facial features that Naruto had inherited from his mother, like his chin and nose. But it begs to question who was Naruto's father, the fact Naruto didn't have red hair or green eyes meant he inherited his father's blonde hair and blue eyes. _I'm reading to deeply into this, but Hiryu-sensei did state that Naruto's father had lots of enemies. Which means Naruto's father was really strong, and was able to grab the attention of the strongest Kunoichi of the Hidden Leaf. The only one stronger than her at the time was the fourth Hokage_, Sakura's eyes widen when she mentally overlaid Naruto's face with the fourth Hokage's face. She then ran to nearest window to look out and look at the Hokage Monument. What she saw only confirmed her hypothesis; _Naruto's father was the fourth Hokage._

Author's Note: There is another fic with this name on it only it was called A Different Team, a new sensei, it was basically mini harem with Naruto being paired with Sakura and Ino good fic, suggest reading it if you need to find it look on my profile I have both that fic and the sequel the person made only hasn't finished.


	3. Chapter 3 edited

Chapter 3

Hana Inuzuka was having a normal work day, meaning she spent the morning checking on her clan's dogs. Some of the females were with pups, others were down with various illnesses, priority dictated she check the ones with serious illnesses first and decide whether or not they could be saved with a vaccine or having the rather unfortunate duty of euthanizing them. Needless to say she was overall happy that only one had a serious illness and it was treatable. The females with pups she checked and rechecked to make sure they were doing well; it was always a joy to see new pups enter the pack. New pups meant a new member of the clan would be born somewhere within the next nine months. She had just finished the last check up when Kiba appeared. "Sis, Sakura is waiting for you, apparently my future brother-in-law has something for you."

Hana rolled her eyes before turning to her baby brother, there were many things she found in her brother that was annoying, mostly it was that his personality matched their father. She sighed watching as he walked away Akamaru perched on his head. One of the things that seemed to perturb her brother was the fact that she chose Hiryu as her mate. _He simply can't understand that Hiryu is alpha material, can't understand that my Hiryu-kun has the three things that make him an alpha male. He'll know what it means eventually, mother stated father took a while before he came to the realization and then abuse it, baka father._

Hana entered the house still wearing her lab coat mostly because Hiryu often stated she looked sexy wearing it, one of the few role playing things they did after they became engaged was her wearing lab coat and a pair of wire framed glasses with no lenses and nothing else. _He has such an imagination, and he has never once touched those porn books Kakashi-sempai always reads_. Hana giggled to herself as she walked into the foyer and notice Hiryu's student was missing, looking around she spotted the pink haired 'kunoichi' looking out the window at the Hokage monument. Hana winced slightly at the quotations in her mind when referring to both Ino and Sakura as kunoichi. She hoped Hiryu and Asuma can break the two girls of the fangirlism, before it cause them harm.

The closer the Inuzuka girl got to the window she notice the rosette haired girl was staring at but not really looking at the monument instead the girl looked like she was trying hard to catch her breath. "Sakura?"

Sakura jumped turning to the older girl, "Oh sorry, um, sensei wanted me to give this to you," the girl pulled out a scroll and handed it to the older girl. "He also said I needed to stay here until you've read it and ask you what you thought."

Hana shrugged and opened the scroll, reading the contents she struggled to keep a look of surprise off her face or to look up at the frail looking girl. When she finished she rolled the scroll back up and tapped her chin looking at the rosette haired girl with a long nailed index finger in thought. "If you weren't a shinobi and still a civilian would you like the idea of being a doctor?"

Sakura's eyes widen for a moment before she thought about it, the rosette always liked the idea of helping people. Granted she was annoyed at Naruto most of the time but when she saw him struggle in some of the simpler assignments in school a part of her wanted to help him. This was made worse by the fact that almost all the teachers, except Iruka, treated Naruto like he was either not there or like he was nothing to be bothered with. It wasn't until the last two years that he appeared to simply give up and start pulling more pranks also he seemed to go out of his way to ask her out every other day which annoyed her and flattered her at the same time. Still the idea of helping someone in need always appealed to her even if that person drove her crazy. "If I could help anyone then yes, I would love to be doctor if I couldn't be a shinobi."

Hana smiled, "Good answer. Now let's test something else out before I send you back to Hiryu-kun with my recommendation. What do you think is the ideal alpha male?"

Sakura blinked caught off guard by the question, "Um, what do you mean?"

With a sigh, Hana gesture to the rosette haired girl to look out the window at the monument again, "It's how we in the Inuzuka clan are we think much like our nin-dogs, from the way we act to how we perceive other people. Take the Hokage's for a prime example of being what we Inuzuka female's like to call the alpha male. They followed the three main credence of what alpha males truly are. One they are strong both in protecting their pack but also providing for said pack. Number two, they hold unconditional love for their pack, their mates and their pups. Finally the alpha male is willing to sacrifice for their pack, by sacrificing themselves if need be from threats that would destroy the pack. The four hokage's are, as I said, prime examples, they have done all these on every occasion possible this is why the Inuzuka have always loved being part of the Hidden Leaf so many good alpha males here."

Sakura pursed her lips, "Okay so are you saying that Sasuke-kun isn't an alpha male?"

Hana scoffed crossing her arms, "Hardly and for you and the Yamanaka to present yourselves to the Uchiha likes bitches in heat is disgraceful, no bitch should ever present themselves to an unworthy male in the way you have."

Sakura's eyes flashed, "Sasuke is strong, how can you say he's not alpha male material?"

"Please, he isn't Alpha, he's a Lone Wolf, he cares for nothing but his single minded goal, he shows no willingness to protect anything save himself, and he would sooner run from a fight than sacrifice himself for anyone. Itachi is an Alpha male, Hiryu-kun is very alpha male, Kiba if he ever gets his head out of his ass has great potential to be an alpha male, Shino is an Alpha male, Shikamaru and his father regardless of how lazy they are; are alpha males, Choji no matter how much he eats is an alpha male. Your teammate Naruto, is by far the personification of what it means to be an Alpha male," Hana states shaking her head. "You totally missed it because you're sniffing around someone who doesn't deserve you."

Sakura frowned mostly because the older girl was disturbingly making sense, the more she thought about it the more her heart sunk. While she was slightly mortified at the blunt manner of speech Hana did point out things that the rosette haired girl over looked. Naruto had gone out of his way during the academy days to make her feel special by asking her out repeatedly. At first she found it flattering, but the more she got into her rivalry with Ino, the more she found Naruto's advances to be annoying and unwanted. But she wasn't ready to give into the fact just yet. She latched on to the last bit of rationalization she had, "Sasuke is rookie of the year and Naruto is dead last."

Hana started cackling at this, "Hiryu-kun was a dead last and Itachi had been rookie of the year in our year, but when they fought, nine times out of ten Hiryu-kun beat Itachi's ass. Academy ranks are so much bullshit it's not even funny. None of the rookies of the year from the academy have ever lived up to the hype. Danzo Shimura was rookie of the year after the academy was founded, now he's a crazed war hawk who would gladly put himself before the village, Orochimaru was rookie of the year, he's become one of our greatest criminal, Itachi is a murderer of his clan and a missing-nin. The other rookies of the year haven't done anything like Kakashi Hatake and Neji Hyuga, one is trapped in his past and the other handicaps himself by believing everything revolves around fate. Minato Namikaze is probably the only rookie of the year who actually deserves that title and that's only because he had someone to fight for. Rookie of the Year is bullshit, so unless you have something else."

Sakura slumped her shoulders, shaking her head as things seemed to crash around her, revealing how badly she messed up. She then felt Hana gently pat her shoulder looking up she saw the older girl smile sadly. "I wanted to fit in; everyone liked Sasuke they thought he was cool, handsome, and mysterious."

Hana nodded, "Go for the bad boy and ignore all the other guys thinking you could save him or change him," the rosette nodded and the wild looking young girl sighed heavily. "That path only leads to pain and misery. I should know that's how my mother was when she fell for my father, thinking he was an alpha male granted he became one later, but he abuse it. It ended badly, he became an A ranked missing-nin, mother and Hiashi Hyuga hunted him down; she was force to land the killing blow. She's never been the same since, she hides it well but everytime she looks at Kiba I know she sees my dad."

XXX

Sakura looked down a few moments taking a deep breath, "So what happens now?"

"Well during the weekends you'll come here and I'll be training you the basics in medical ninjutsu, I'm a veterinarian not a doctor, but all medic-nins get the same basics," Hana smirked seeing the girls eyes light up.

"You mean I'm going to be training in medicine?" Sakura asked.

Hana nodded, "Yep, blame your sensei the handsome devil that he is, he wanted me to evaluate you so I did, while you're a bit on the fangirly side, I see you can throw that out the window if you give yourself enough time and really train. Here's a bit of advice, drop the Lone Wolf for go for the alpha male in your squad guarantee you'll be happy that's what true alpha males do their bitches."

Sakura looked down feeling uneasy and frowned slightly at being called a bitch again, "How do I even begin?"

"That's easy, apologize," Hana replied. "If he's like any true alpha male Naruto will gladly forgive you and you'll be back to square one, but if he's anything like sensei was he'll probably wonder why you're apologizing."

Before saying her goodbyes and promising to be at the veterinarian clinic Friday morning at the earliest. "Why do you constantly call me a bitch?" she asked tick mark appearing.

"I call any female a bitch, remember we Inuzuka have a dog style mentality and female dogs are called bitches," Hana explains with a shrug as if it was the most normal thing in the world. "I didn't mean to offend you but that's how I am."

"Sorry Hana-sensei," Sakura bowed slightly as Hana pulled out a scroll and wrote down something mid-way through the woman gave a vicious grin.

"Here give this back to my hunky fiancée," Hana handed the rosette the scroll before shooing the girl out. "Friday morning before the clinic opens, get some scrubs." The wild looking called out at the departing girl. "Be sniffing around Naruto before the end of the month all according to plan," the Inuzuka smirked.

XXX

Naruto had been dumbfounded at finding out who his godmother had been and then traveled back to his memories. He vaguely remembered a woman with black hair and eyes often stopping by during his time with the Hokage, he remembered many times being left alone with the woman who seemed to suddenly dote on him often asking him how he was doing after the old man left, always with a sad smile on her face. After a year of this he got use to it and began opening up to her more and more as time went by. He never knew who she was only that she often told him to call her auntie although at the time he never understood why. Granted Naruto was dense but he wasn't stupid he could tell something was up with those get togethers'. "The old man made up those meetings didn't he?"

Hiryu frowned, "What meetings?" Naruto then went onto to explain what he meant when he finished the plain looking Jonin looked surprised at first before thinking about it. "Seems the old man found away around the council's decree. I figure it was the only time the two of you had a chance to bond on some level, but it must of been bittersweet, Mikoto would always leave at the end of the day without you and you went back to your apartment."

"Mother was weak," Sasuke stated coldly. "I remember those times now, she always came home and went to her room crying for hours."

Naruto scowled, "Who said she was weak!"

"My father," Sasuke frowned a bit. "I never understood the reason before why he called her that. Now I do she wanted play surrogate mother to a loser like you, he was right, she was weak." Before Sasuke could react Naruto seemed to teleport from the spot where he was standing and appeared right in front of him the blonde slamming his fist into the Uchiha's face.

"How can you say that!?" Naruto growled.

Sasuke holding his cheek looking surprised at getting taken off guard, looking up he glared at the whisker marked blonde. "It's the truth, she should have stayed at home and been a wife dutiful to father like she was supposed to rather than go pining after her best friend's son. She would have survived being killed."

"Enough, you can go Sasuke," Hiryu said firmly. Both boys backed down as they watched him turn his head both followed spotting Sakura standing there looking absolutely shocked. Sasuke snorted walking away, "Oh and Sasuke tomorrow nine o'clock training begins in earnest," the Uchiha stopped for a second nodding in acknowledgement before leaving. "Welcome back Sakura, I'm sorry you had to see your teammates fight like that."

Sakura walked over handing him the scroll Hana had given her, looking even more distraught as she saw the idealism behind her feelings for Sasuke get blasted into a million pieces with such a cruel phrase along with Hana's strange logic about the male half of humanity. "Does he really think that about women?"

"His father instilled a lot of the Uchiha's cruel ideals upon him. He is truly his father's son," Hiryu stated distastefully reading the scroll blushing slightly at one point at something his fiancée wrote down, _Damn she's horny again never met a woman so damned insatiable but considering who her mother is and who her friends are I'm lucky she hasn't strapped me down yet_. "I take it you know then about Naruto's father?"

Naruto's eyes perked up at that turning to Sakura expectantly, Sakura nodded. "I see, well then I will ask you to keep it a secret for awhile," he paused seeing Naruto about to protest. "Easy I have something's in motion if they pan out I'll tell you who your dad is I'm not the old man I know you can handle it just got to promise me both you won't spread it around," the jonin looked pointedly at them and they both nod. "Now I can't reveal training until tomorrow, however both of you will need more than academy basic taijutsu," he growled slightly, "or the bastardize version Naruto was trained in, as such I will give Naruto his mother and father's taijutsu scrolls for him to read and learn from to find his own style. Sakura I believe Tsunade's taijutsu style will serve you well, thankfully her apprentice left me a copy for safe keeping."

"Um, sensei, why would Princess Tsunade's apprentice leave you with a taijutsu scroll?" Sakura asked.

"Parting gift," Hiryu smiled sadly. "Something to remember my first crush by, however I feel I've held onto it long enough. By giving it away to someone who can use it to its fullest potential I know it will be in good hands also I'm ready to let go, Hana-chan is my one I don't need to fawn over the past anymore."

"What about Sasuke-teme and what he said?" Naruto asked his voice coming out almost in a snarl.

"Nothing you can do to change him Naruto, he is set on his path," Hiryu sighed sadly. "He is simply too much like his father." Naruto dropped to the ground sighing heavily.

Sakura looked down hearing those spitefully words made her think back to her conversation with Hana. _Hana was right; Sasuke is so cold he wouldn't protect anything except himself._ Sakura sat down across from Naruto looking depressed.

"Sakura-chan I'm sorry, I know I hit the jerk," the whisker marked blonde thought for a moment before he smiled. "So if you want to make you feel better you can clock me." He then proceeded to present his chin for an uppercut. Hiryu watched what transpired feeling a bit nostalgic at the scene reminding him of his final action that won him Hana's heart after spending so many months denying he cared about her at all. Hana did deck him though after that she kissed him.

Sakura looked up seeing him sitting there no fear in the fact he basically gave her the okay to smash his teeth in for some imagined slight. She thought about Hana's third rule of being an Alpha male, sacrifice. _Hana was right again, Kami what have I done?_ Sakura slowly stood looking at Naruto practically leaning forward to get an unobstructed shot at his chin. It would be considered funny if she didn't feel so ashamed of herself. She lunged at Naruto but instead of throwing a punch, she threw her arms around his waist burying her face into his shoulder and cried.

Naruto opened his eyes looking a bit confused at first, he expected the impact to hurt more after all he felt more than his fair share of punches from the pinked haired girl in the past to know what she was capable when angry. He looked to his left and saw a long waterfall of pink, he fought a blush when he felt her shoulder shaking against him and something warm and wet on his shoulder. "Sakura-chan?"

"I'm sorry for everything I ever did to you," Sakura cried into his shoulder which only Naruto's keen hearing could hear.

The whisker marked blonde pinched himself, wincing at the pain and realized this wasn't a dream, his Sakura-chan apologize for what, he had no earthly idea. But seeing her cry made his heart ache, an angry Sakura he could deal with, he simply let her vent, when he saw a happy Sakura for the rest of his day he felt that he could do no wrong. But a sad or scared Sakura he felt powerless against and he would move mountains, pull a thousand pranks, or beat up hundred bullies to see her smile again. He looked over at his sensei who simply smiled after few heartbeats Naruto put his arms around her on instinct and pulled her closer. "You got nothing to be sorry for, Sakura-chan," he whispered and felt her grab him tighter.

"Baka," Was her soft reply causing him to chuckle, she looked up and what he saw was probably the most breathtaking thing he ever seen in his life. He instinctively leaned forward and kissed her forehead. She looked at him in confusion and her face was deep red.

"I always wanted to do that," Naruto chuckled feeling if he was going to get clobbered in a few seconds knowing that was the most likely reaction, he might as well get one of his dreams accomplished.

Sakura's eyes widen as something in her mind clicked to yesterday and her meeting with Sasuke how his words mirrored her thoughts and how out of place they sounded. The only time Sasuke ever showed any remote interest was that moment yesterday and even then all he asked was what she thought of Naruto. She played that memory over in her head she closed her eyes and mentally cursed herself for not spotting the henge. "My forehead is so pretty you could kiss it," she stated numbly.

Naruto not realizing the sudden change in tone rubbed the back of his head, "Um, yeah I've always thought that, it's one of your best features."

Sakura slumped back into Naruto's arms, new tears forming, "Stupid, stupid, stupid," she cried softly lightly hitting her head against the blonde boy's shoulder.

Hiryu stood watching them his smile, warmly thinking back to Kushina when she told her team how after Minato saved her and brought back to the village, how she spent a long time in Minato's arms crying over her own stupidity as she called it. "Take care of her Naruto; I'll see you here tomorrow."

Naruto nodded looking so lost as he watched his sensei leave, not sure what to do, "You're not stupid Sakura-chan, you're the smartest, prettiest, most awesome kunoichi I know, believe it." He felt her tighten her grip on him for a few moments as her crying seemed to trail off her breathing got shallower she then seemed to go limp in his arms. He looked down and found she had fallen asleep, not sure what to do he scooped Sakura up bridal style then stood up running out of the training ground.

A few minutes later Naruto found himself in front of the Haruno clan compound looking nervously at the people gathered. Mebuki Haruno walked up she looked down at the sleeping girl in Naruto's arms seeing her daughter's face covered in dried tear streaks. She had to admit the boy was indeed the offspring of the Yellow Flash and the Red Hot Habanero, to have gall and balls to show up with her daughter in his arms and looking like the girl had been crying. "Better explain yourself young man, why is my daughter sleeping in your arms and looks like she's been crying."

Naruto winced, took a deep breath and explained what had happened the best he could, their first team meeting, Sakura leaving briefly to run an errand, the weight of knowing who his mother and godmother were, his fight with Sasuke and everything Sakura did when she got back. "I'm sorry but she wouldn't tell me what I did wrong, heck she didn't even hit me. All she did was cry and say she was sorry for everything she did; I don't even know what she meant."

Mebuki smiled sadly, "It's okay Naruto-kun, come inside and lets tuck her into bed, she's had a very emotional draining day."

Naruto sighed glad he wasn't going to get hit for causing Sakura to cry, maybe being there but at least not making her cry. "Why are girls so confusing?" he mutters to himself.

Mebuki giggled softly to herself as they walked up the stairs to Sakura's room, "We are one of life's great mysteries Naruto-kun, would you care about Sakura-chan any less?"

"No, believe it. She's the greatest," Naruto smiled then tensed feeling Sakura shift in his arms snuggling closer to him he also didn't notice the faint smile on the girl's lips. When the two reached Sakura's bed he gently laid her down, watching as her mother took off the girl's sandals and headband before gently pulling the covers over the girl. Naruto left the room closed his eyes, tensed, and waited for the inevitable hammer to fall as soon as the door closed.

Mebuki closed the door sighing and running her hands through her pink hair glancing at Naruto however, caused her to frown sadly. She could see the boy seized up waiting for a slap or a fist to the face, she gently touched his head seeing him flinch made her want to cry. _Oh, Kushi what have these people done to your poor boy_. After a few seconds he tentatively opened his eyes to look up at her. "I would never hit you Naruto."

"You wouldn't?" Naruto asked.

"Mikoto may have gotten the right to be called your godmother because she was your mother's best friend but she wasn't the only one your mother befriended," Mebuki smiled softly.

Naruto's eyes widen, "R-Really how many friends did mom have?"

"Just four myself, Mikoto, Tsume Inuzuka, and your father," Mebuki stated as the two descended the stairway. "I tried my luck at being a kunoichi, failed the genin test three times."

"I did that too, really sucks doesn't it," Naruto stated.

Mebuki giggled ruffling the boy's hair, "Was never able to make a good henge, always came out looking like they have been punched in the mouth."

Naruto paused picturing the image in his mind and after a second looked down, "Yeah I had that same problem at first, took a lot of hard work to get it right, accidently made my own jutsu trying to get it right."

"Ah yes, the Sexy-jutsu I heard you use it to weed out perverts," Mebuki smiled not realizing they have entered the kitchen. She stopped and shrugged, "Have a seat Naruto-kun its late and I'm sure you haven't eaten yet."

"You don't have to," Naruto stated before his stomach growled in response causing the blonde boy to blush.

"Sit, it won't take long," Mebuki pulled out some cooking ingredients and started chopping away. "Besides, gives me more time to stay at home, civilian council duties are a real pain."

"Oh right, Sakura-chan loved to talk about you being on the council when she was in the academy, her and Ino gossiped about it just as much as they fangirl about Sasuke-teme," the blonde boy chuckled.

Mebuki frowned a bit before turning, pouring some oil into a wok. "Fangirls, how I hate that term," she stated softly.

"I'm sorry," Naruto stated looking down.

"Not your fault Naruto, the term itself however is a sore spot for me. My older sister had become one to a degree that she gave up being a kunoichi and followed Fugaku Uchiha around even when he went on missions," Mebuki sighed sadly stirring the wok. "Fugaku and his team returned with her body wrapped up. His kunoichi teammate told me she had been isolated, raped, and had her throat slit. All Fugaku said was that she made a good distraction long enough for them to fulfill their mission. Both his teammates asked to be reassigned after that and he was put in charge of the police force."

Naruto growled softly, "I don't like him already, he turned Sasuke into a teme, he called my godmother weak just because she wanted to spend time with me, and now what you told me. He's a bigger teme than his son!"

Mebuki chuckled softly before pouring a large serving of beef ramen into a bowl, "Here if you're anything like your mother, this should tide you over till tomorrow."

Naruto's eyes brighten as he began wolfing down the ramen, but not before thanking the pink haired woman. _I do hope she falls for you instead of the son of that asshole, it would make both Kushi and I very happy._

Author's Note: I'm starting this straight up non-crossover fic basically it's a what if fic that puts a new Jonin sensei in Kakashi's spot. Using what I know of the actual series and what I've read, the fact that Kushina and Mikoto were actually friends though it has never been confirmed or not that Mikoto was actually Naruto's godmother. But it does make a lot of sense in the long run. But before I made the chapter's to this fic I kind of had epiphany of sorts in regards to Naruto and Sakura, look at Sakura's life was before she met Ino and look at Kushina's life before Minato saved her, both were teased and picked on because of their hair and in Sakura's case her forehead. The only difference between the two is how they reacted to the bullying, Sakura became more withdrawn and it took someone to pull her out of it, Kushina pretty much fought back against the bullying. It floored me when I realized this, it also lead me back through everything else I observed and how scary similar Naruto and Sakura are to Naruto's parents. Which I hope Kishimoto will do something like Naruto: Kushina's Story or Minato's Story maybe as a 30 Episode OVA series, going from genin to their deaths. As for Ideas for the Future I'm going to do the Naruto: Konoha's Lethal Protector and Sakura Uzumaki if I can get a good beta reader that will not only do those but will help with some of the ones I've already done so I can re-release the revised versions without too much trouble. I feel if someone can help fix my mistakes so I don't embarrass myself like I did with Harry Potter and the Shadow Games that will be great. I'm also going to do a Naruto/Batman exclusive crossover be a Naruto/Harley Quinn/Poison Ivy pairing, I'm not real good with harem fics even mini ones so help for that would be greatly appreciated, anyone wanting to be my beta reader PM me.


	4. Chapter 4 edited

Chapter 4

Sakura ran down the stairs the next morning looking around before focusing on her mom, "Mom, how did I get home?"

"Naruto brought you home last night, not sure what happened, but judging on what he told me you were pretty emotionally spent," Mebuki stated sipping her morning tea.

The rosette haired girl blushed slightly as she sat down to breakfast noting it was a bigger portion than she normally was used to, she looked up at her mother questionably, "Your sensei stopped by shortly after Naruto left and told me to give you a rich calorie diet stating that kunoichi will burn through them during training." Sakura nodded digging into her meal with more gusto than usual, her heart lighter than it had been since she was seven. "That boy loves you, you know," Mebuki stated casually, causing her daughter to nearly choke on some chopped ham. "Sorry dear."

"Naruto actually loves me," Sakura looking unconvinced. "I knew he had a crush on me in the academy, he wasn't exactly hiding that fact."

"Sometimes a crush can grow into something more because that person sees something in the person they have a crush on many don't see. Just like how we fall out of crushes, something that destroys our image of that person like you must have seen yesterday," the older rosette haired woman explains.

Sakura remembered coming back from her errand to hear Sasuke say something about his own mother that was so cruel and cold it shocked her so much. Her entire opinion of the Uchiha had begun to be revaluated. Same could be said of Naruto, "Mom did you know Mikoto Uchiha any?"

"Very much so, she was one of my best friends aside from Kushina. She was heartbroken over the fact that she couldn't raise her godson," Mebuki said sadly.

"Wait, you knew Naruto's mom?" Sakura's eyes were wide.

"Yes dear, Kushi and I were very close, just not as close as she and Mikoto but still," Mebuki sighed heavily with a casual shrug sipping her tea again. "Argued long and hard to be Naruto's godmother, but it came down to which clan could protect Naruto from his father's enemies if anything ever happen Kushi and her husband."

"You mean the fourth don't you," Sakura stated. "She married Minato Namikaze, didn't she?"

Mebuki smiled a bit in pride, "Not hard to figure it out was it, many others ignore the fact that Naruto is the spitting image of his father, Naruto himself included."

The rosette haired girl giggled taking a bite of her toast looking at the clock seeing she had a good hour before meeting with her team. "I wonder what sensei is going to teach us today, yesterday we found out our affinities," Sakura puffed out her chest in pride. "I have two wind and water, Sasuke has lightning, and Naruto has wind."

Mebuki nods, "Well we are descended from a prominent kekkei genkai family from the Water country, though years of being civilians probably washed most of our bloodline into the gutter."

Sakura sighed heavily finishing her meal, "Sensei also put me in touch with his fiancée to teach me basic medical ninjutsu."

"Really, that's a very good profession to fall back on Sakura-chan, I'm very proud of you," Mebuki smiled brightly before catching the melancholy look on her daughter's face. "What's the matter sweetie?"

"All this time I've been fawning over a guy and he turns out to be wrong guy, I bought into the same thing that every other girl in school did," the rosette haired girl buried her face in her hands new tears forming.

Mebuki gently gathered up her daughter into her arms and let the young girl sob, after a few moments she gently brought her daughter's eyes up to meet hers. "Sometimes angel, things are not always as cut and dry as we believe. Sasuke might be a pleasant handsome face and his attitude comes off as cool, but in the end when you look underneath, you see who he truly is."

"He's a hateful, brooding, insensitive, bastard!" Sakura shouted eyes flashing angrily.

Mebuki smile returned, "Very true, now, who do you know that is the direct opposite and you've found your ideal boy."

Taking a few minutes to calm herself the rosette haired girl went to the sink to wash off her face and empty her breakfast dishes thinking. _Someone who is kind, thoughtful, sensitive in most cases, and selfless. _Sakura blushed slightly thinking about how Naruto carried her home after she cried herself to sleep on his shoulder. "Naruto," she whispered softly looking at her reflection in the window, she saw a very tired looking young girl with a waterfall of hair she never truly wanted, she only grew it trying to get a stuck up asshole to notice her. "Mom, can you help me cut my hair down to what it was like before I started school?"

"Sure, but it'll have to wait until this evening, council meeting today," Mebuki stated chugging down her tea. Sakura nodded and went up to get ready to meet her team, looking into her closet she saw battle dress after battle dress. She growled looking at the assemble she picked out one before glaring at the rest.

The rosette haired girl started pulling each one off the rack and shoving them into a large empty cardboard box she found. Once that was done she got dressed not realizing she had been crying during the whole ordeal. Anger, confusion, sadness, and a small amount of relief flooded through her during this moment. It was like a she had died and been reborn with each article of clothing being shoved into the box. After she finished she washed her face again and headed for the training ground.

XXX

Hiryu had arrived to see Sasuke standing by himself brooding as usual, "Train me," Sasuke states.

"No, we will wait for your teammates," Hiryu stated simply leaning against a tree.

"I'm the only one who matters, the others are weak, TRAIN ME!" Sasuke growled a second before he found himself on the ground the point of Hiryu's sword at his throat.

"You don't make demands of your sensei or your superior, Genin," Hiryu stated his voice cold as ice. "I'm not your fangirls, nor am I someone within the civilian council that puckers up and kisses your ass, you demand anything from me again in the future I'll cut your eyes out and shove them down your fucking throat. Do I make myself clear?"

Sasuke's eyes were wide in fear nodding once, Hiryu stood up and sheathing his sword. The Uchiha had never seen speed like that before. As the Uchiha slowly stood both of his teammates entered the training ground.

"Yo sensei," Naruto shouted cheerfully which caused the brown haired Jonin to smile easily forgetting the incident that occurred.

"Naruto, good morning," Hiryu chuckled before turning seeing a more subdued pink haired girl walk in as well. "And good morning to you as well Sakura."

Sakura smiled weakly, "Good morning, sensei."

"Now that your all here allow me to give you our weekly schedule," Hiryu pulled out a scroll as the trio stood around him, Naruto looking cheerful, Sakura slowly following suit, and Sasuke still looking broody. "Monday till Thursday we will train from nine to one in either chakra control exercises, team building, or tactics depending on the day," Naruto raised his hand looking confused. "Yes Naruto?"

"Um, team building I can get but what about those other two?" the whisker marked blonde asked.

"Chakra control will allow you to control and contain your chakra reserves so you don't waist it. You did a preliminary one in the academy where you had to keep a leaf stuck to your forehead for a fixed amount of time, correct?" Hiryu asked them both Sasuke and Sakura nods with Naruto looking down. "Off pulling a prank on that day?" the plain looking Jonin stated rather than truly question the blonde.

"Actually sensei, Naruto was there just not when the explanation was given," Sakura stated then frowned. "It was really strange the teacher yelled at Naruto for goofing off even though none of us saw him do anything. The teacher then kicked him out long enough to explain how to do the exercise then brought Naruto back in."

Hiryu pinched his nose with a sigh, "Sensei and her husband are rolling in their graves because this village, I just know it. Okay, Sakura can you give Naruto brief explanation on chakra control," he sat back watching as Naruto's total attention was on his favorite rosette haired girl listening to her explanation and asked questions afterward. "Understand the need for control now?"

"Yeah sensei so what about that tactics stuff?" Naruto asked.

"Tactics is all about strategy, planning, and improvisation things you need for each mission be it, assassination, escort, or guarding," Hiryu tapped his temple. "If you can't use this first then your other skills are pretty much useless and you will die pretty quickly against a higher ranked shinobi. However if you can properly use your head in any given situation you can out think, out maneuver, and outwit your opponent. Sometimes being stronger than your opponent isn't enough, what's the point of strength if your opponent is faster than you. Tactics allows you to be faster than your opponent, regardless of how powerful he is, a Genin can take down a Jonin if the Genin has a better end game and Jonin always underestimates a genin giving them ample opportunity to apply their end game."

Sasuke scoffs mentally at this, only believing what his father had told him, that strength and power were the only means, anything else was less than nothing. "What about Friday thru Sunday?"

"I have set up individual training for you, but those will be waiting until I deem you worthy of them which will not occur until you've master both the tree walking chakra control exercise and the water walking one. Which Naruto and Sakura will master quickly, mainly because Sakura's chakra is naturally lower than yours or Naruto's therefore it will be easy to control and Naruto has the shadow clones."

The blonde's eyes looked at him in confusion, "What ya mean sensei?"

"Shadow clones Naruto, are in the forbidden scroll of sealing for two reasons the first is it takes a lot of chakra to use and the second is if not used responsibly could cause the user to have a brain aneurysm from getting too much information at once. However according to the Hokage you summoned nearly 500 clones the night you became a genin, so the chakra use isn't really an issue however use them sparingly no more than ten to twenty for the control exercises," Hiryu explains. "At any rate that's the reason I believe you'll master the chakra control exercises just as fast as Sakura, Sasuke has no such advantage but if he works at it he could master both within two weeks. That's when you'll be training on the weekends with the specialists I have lined up. Sakura and Naruto you'll be training with Asuma Sarutobi on your wind affinities on Friday. Sakura will spend Saturday and Sunday with my lovely fiancée in medical ninjutsu, Naruto will work on his taijutsu forms with Might Gai," Hiryu glances at Naruto, "I must warn you though Naruto, Gai is a bit eccentric so ask him to keep you both in your current attire and the training schedule he and I worked out," Hiryu groaned. "better yet I think I'll ask my future mother-in-law to watch that loony, he's already got one clone I don't need you turning into another," Hiryu then turned to Sasuke.

"You'll be training with Kakashi Hatake in both your lightning affinity as well as the Sharingan when you manage to unlock it," the plain looking Jonin raised a hand keeping the Uchiha from voicing his question. "He obtained the Sharingan during the last war when his teammate saved him and gifted the eye to him after dying from his wounds." The plain faced jonin walked a few paces away missing Sasuke's glare. "Let's begin, Naruto make ten shadow clones and the thirteen of you grab a kunai," with that the jonin led them to a series a trees first demonstrating what he wanted them to do before sending them off to do it.

Author's Note: I am fixing the issues with my new beta reader both of us are reading and tweaking the fic to make it a better read and fixing Sakura's mother name and changing Mitoko to Mikoto I'm hoping the comedic elements are doing all right and what do you think of Hiryu. The last three chapter's of In Brightest Day with Violet Light has hit a snag with the final climax being hard to come up with the Kisami vs. Team Gai and Team Kurenai fight in chapter 12 and the Green Lantern and Star Sapphire vs. Obito and Zetsu in Chapter 13 so any suggestions would be appreciated.


	5. Chapter 5 edited

Chapter 5

Three months have come and gone since Team 7's first meeting, when they weren't training together in tactics, team building, and chakra control they were with their supplementary trainers. Naruto was now proficient in his parent's first two tiers of their taijutsu arts, with three more to go in his father's taijutsu and four more to go for his mothers. He was also added the Wind Style: Great Breakthrough and the modified Wind Style: Wind Scythe Jutsu with Hiryu contemplating getting Kakashi or Jiraiya to teach him the Rasengan. With her fangirlism on Sasuke crushed, Sakura began training more, her taijutsu had expanded to include Tsunade's brand of taijutsu which incidentally also included more medical jutsu for her to learn, she also knew Water Style: Water Shotgun jutsu and the dangerous Water Style: Water Dragon jutsu. Both had grown greatly under their teachers, and were pleased with the praise those teachers have given them.

Sasuke on the other hand was slowly becoming more livid with each passing day when his teammates seemed to get stronger than he. The reality of it was he was just as strong as they were, he just simply didn't see it, his Sharingan had awakened during his training with Kakashi like Hiryu had told him and he had been taught in its use only for his team sensei ordering him to not use it unless in a combat situation. "How can I not use it, it's my bloodline!"

"Simple, every leaf shinobi has worked hard to obtain the skills they have, for you to come along and use your sharingan on their hard work is a disgrace to you, to your clan, and to this village. I have no qualms using your kekkei genkai against an enemy shinobi or during the Chunin Exams, but while we are within these walls those eyes better be turned off or I'll turn them off for you," Hiryu stated calmly. Sasuke hated the man with a passion, feeling he was trying to keep him stagnant and weak; the only thing that made it worse was that the man's fiancée is an Inuzuka. His father often told him the fact that the Inuzuka were nothing more than weak pathetic trackers that needed a Hyuga or an Aburame to watch their back while they charged blindly into a battle with their stupid mutts. _Why Itachi associated himself with the dog-bitch I'll never know, and the fact this kiss ass is as strong as my brother is hard to believe_. Sasuke had gone to the civilian council to get them to influence the plain looking shinobi to train him exclusively. He never got it at least not in the way he thought he would, instead he got a two on one sparring match against Sakura and Naruto with Naruto able to use his clones which made it a six on one, in the end he was beaten to a pulp.

"Next time you try to use the council to circumvent training my team again, I'll drum your ass out of the ninja corps, genin, slap your precious little eyes with a sealing jutsu that not even Jiraiya of the Sannin can undo, and have your mind turned into a vegetable," The plain looking jonin stated coldly. "The only thing you'll be good for after that is genetic material, so cross me again Uchiha and watch your life become shit."

Since then the Uchiha had kept his mouth shut, worked hard at his training but held the ever growing resentment to his team.

XXX

Hiryu looked at the C ranked missions before him and mulled things over; he knew Naruto and Sakura were ready for these missions. But the Uchiha was a constant thorn in his side; he only did the teamwork because it was required and not because he cared for his teammates. He tried to go behind the jonin's back with the Civilian Council, which didn't work mainly because they had no say in shinobi matters. _He's going to get himself kicked out at this rate and I'll be damned if Naruto and Sakura suffer the possibility of not getting promoted because of his stuck up ass_. He figured they would try a C ranked mission to see if Sasuke will fall in line, if he fails in this after the months of training it would be the final straw. _Let's see, bandit camp needs clearing out near the remains of the Hidden Whirlpool village, not a good idea don't want Naruto wandering off to check it out, may do that one solo though, Kushina-sensei once told us that her clan had special chakra based family trees in the main vault. She said the family is always updating due to the special seals, so it might show clan members that are still alive. _Hiryu paused thinking about it, _Fuck solo I'll take Hana-chan with me she could use an excuse for her and the triplets to cut loose, she's been getting really horny lately and I'm only one man_. He chuckled to himself thinking about his fiancée's voracious sexual appetite as he scanned the other C ranks pocketing the bandit one. _Tazuna bridge builder been waiting three weeks for an escort home_, _oh that's not suspicious at all_. One week he could understand after all Hidden Villages are busy most of the time both during war and in peace time with missions so more than once a person would have to wait until a unit was free. _Bandits while terrible, tend to leave architects and contractors alone no money on them except traveling cash. Nope this is got to be B or higher A ranked missing-nin, the fact he hasn't left yet to risk going home on his own indicates A-ranked shinobi are possibly involved, _he paused looking at the destination then flipped open a map noting the name of a warehouse that a Leaf Hunter-nin had highlighted. _Gatou Shipping Conglomerate, I see hmm very interesting. _Hiryu took the scroll and walked up to the Hokage, "Lord Hokage I'll take these two C ranked missions, the escort mission for my genin squad."

"And the bandit mission?" Sarutobi asked.

"Oh, I thought Hana-chan could use some fun she's getting really restless dealing with sick dogs the last three months I think my sexy fiancée needs a treat," the plain looking jonin gave a feral smile. "I would also like Kakashi Hatake to come with us to escort my team back to the village while Hana-chan and I do the second mission."

_That's not standard procedure, normally if a jonin sensei needs to leave on an assignment he just escort his team home then do the assignment. He's basically stating he needs another Jonin and a Chunin to accompany his team because the client is lying about the mission parameters. _The old hokage nodded subtly as Hiryu turned, "I'll let the bridge builder know to meet your squad at the front gate."

XXX

Naruto was ecstatic after the team's first mission to catch the unholy terror that was Tora, which the whisker marked blonde hated with a passion at first, yet Team Seven's sensei loved the animal dearly. With anyone else the cat lived up to the nightmare stories told about her, but the moment she touched Hiryu's arms the cat became docile and purred up a storm. Naruto couldn't understand such a thing at first until he saw how his sensei held the cat. Tentatively, Naruto actually petted the animal and was rewarded a few minutes later when the cat jumped into his arms. He actually apologized to the cat, and whispered to it thanks for the training exercise. Tora bumped her head into his chin as if telling him she enjoyed the chase and was glad she marred the Uchiha's face real good. "Tora-chan is pretty cool, I feel bad for her though, having to deal with the Fire Lord's wife."

"I hope the fat old hag squeezes the life out of that monster," Sasuke snarled.

"You're just mad that she doesn't worship the ground you walk on," the blonde snickered.

"Animals are weak distractions," the Uchiha scoffed turning away.

Shaking his head, Naruto turned to look at the girl of his dreams noting she was ignoring them reading her medical textbooks which she had taken to doing when their sensei was away getting them set up for training usually involving either tactics or team building. "So which book you reading today, Sakura-chan?" he asked with a smile.

"Different applications of poison, the Sand uses them in their Puppet Corps, the Mist use a specialized algae they have in the lakes surrounding the village for interrogations, it's such a fascinating read, Naruto-kun," the rosette stated she started using the suffix 'kun' after their second month of training and they began dating.

XXX

To say Naruto had been floored when she first started was an understatement, he blurted out asking for a date and surprisingly she accepted. He wanted it to be a special one so he asked her what kind of place she liked to eat at. They went to her favorite sushi place and tried to have a nice time minus the fact the waiter's practically ignored them save the one Sakura knew and he was none too nice to the rosette haired girl. "If you start consorting with his sort, I must have seriously misjudged you, Ms. Haruno."

"I know for a fact that Naruto has not pulled a prank here, why are you doing this!" Sakura shouted after seeing Naruto get a pained empty expression on his face she hated seeing while she had been at the academy and hated more after finding out about his tenant.

"I'm forbidden to discuss it, I've been told by the owner to keep him away at all costs, you may stay Miss Haruno, but he must leave." The man stated firmly.

Sakura's jade green eyes turned dark and stormy, "Seven years I've come here greeted nicely, had the best sushi I ever tasted. Brought my best friend here, my mom, bragging how awesome the food tastes but the moment I bring my first date, the first boy who actually sees me for me and you people have the balls to turn my Naruto away because of something that is not his fault," she gently takes Naruto's hand. "Come on Naruto, let's get some ramen, suddenly I don't feel like ever having sushi again," She stated softly as the young couple left the restaurant.

"I-I'm sorry Sakura-chan," The whisker marked blonde stated sadly.

"Don't," Sakura said softly gently touching his lips with a single finger. "You are not that fox, it's just sealed inside you and if these idiots can't realize that, then I don't need restaurant quality sushi anymore, at least until you become Hokage," she giggled at the last part.

XXX

Naruto wasn't hesitant to call what he and Sakura had a relationship, even though Mebuki stated they've gone out more than once therefore they were pretty much boyfriend and girlfriend. The older Haruno seem to take delight in reminding of that fact and was proud of Naruto for revealing his tenant to Sakura. This seemed to make the relationship even stronger, as it seemed to light a fire in Sakura's eyes.

Naruto sat down next to Sakura as she read, "Sensei has been at the tower for a while, what mission you think we'll get?"

"Don't know, but he said it won't be as he quote's a stupid chore," Sakura stated putting her book down long enough to do air quotes.

"I know maybe he's giving us a C ranked mission to find Sasuke-teme's funny bone," Naruto stated cheerfully causing Sasuke to scowl.

"Naruto-kun that's not nice," the rosette paused watching Naruto frown, "we can't find something that doesn't exist," she stated casually after a few second she watched Naruto laughing at the joke before she joined in.

The Uchiha watched them both seething in rage before he felt a hand dropped onto his shoulder looking up he saw the unwelcomed of their sensei, alongside him was his dog-bitch fiancée and his other sensei.

"Enough with the jokes on Sasuke's inability to be funny, sad to say he inherited that from his father as well," Hiryu stated earning a small snicker from not only Naruto and Sakura, but Hana too. "His mother on the other hand took part in more than a few of Kushina-sensei's pranks, you'd be amazed at what someone using the Sharingan can do to enhance a genjutsu prank."

"So what, Mom and Auntie Mikoto were like prankster sisters or something?" Naruto asked.

"Oh yeah," Hana barked out a laugh, "really funny to see two grown women set off an exploding dye pack in the ANBU locker room."

Naruto pouted, "I thought I was the only one who did that prank."

Kakashi's visible eye twitched, "The bright neon orange dye three years ago?"

Naruto nodded his smiled widening, "Yep, had to wait until Neko-chan went on patrol, didn't want her to get dye all over her, believe it."

Hana couldn't take it anymore, seeing Kakashi's expression she started rolling on the ground howling in laughter. Kakashi sighed shaking his head a small smile no one could see under his mask, "I'll make sure Neko knows you spared her from that prank."

Hiryu cleared his throat noting the only one who didn't have a visible smile was Sasuke, _More evidence the boy shouldn't be in this line of work. _"Now to business, Team Seven will be doing an escort and bodyguard mission to the Land of Waves, once we've finished our mandate in the Land of Waves, Kakashi here will bring you guys home as I have another mission right after that one. Just remember to mind Kakashi like you do me on the way home and everything will be golden," he glanced at Sasuke. "Well Sakura and Naruto mind Kakashi like you do me, Sasuke you better mind your p's and q's if I get one word from Kakashi, Naruto, or Sakura that you got out of line on the way home you won't live to regret it. Now go pack for the mission."

XXX

"Is it a good idea to do this?" Hana asked looking a bit worried as her eyes followed the slowly retreating form of the last Uchiha.

"No but my hands are tied until he does something truly wrong," Hiryu sighed heavily. "I should have done the bell test or done more to evaluate their mindset. Still, I am pleased with Naruto and Sakura's progress it's almost like seeing Kushina-sensei and Minato-sama again with those two."

"How is Naruto doing?" Kakashi asked.

"Mastered the first two tiers of both his parents taijutsu styles, knows Great Breakthrough and the wind scythe, Asuma gave him his own set of trench knives, if he does well on this mission, I'm recommending he learn the Rasengan," Hiryu stated turning to his fiancée and the silver haired older man.

Kakashi's eye widen again before he slumped pulling out a small wad of currency, "You won."

"Why thank you so much, Kakashi," the plain looking young man smiled earning a raised eyebrow from his fiancée. "He bet six years ago I couldn't train Naruto to a point where he could surpass his father before the first chunin exams the boy could take. Naruto is pretty much to that point now and he hasn't even taken his first C ranked mission yet, so yeah I won the bet." Hana cackled at the silver haired jonin's slumped defeated shoulders. Hiryu's face turned cool, "If I'm right, then we'll have at least a squad of chunin to deal with on this mission if not one or two Jonin."

"Don't worry, we'll be ready," Hana kissed him.

Author's Note: I love bashing Sasuke basically because the little prick deserves it, and I know I'm going a little fast in regards to Naruto and Sakura getting together, but hey it's my fic I can do what I want. Something about these two just scream they'll end up together maybe it's all the parallel's I've seen with Naruto's parents now that its been explain who they were and how they got together. I mean the moment I first saw Kushina in the manga my first words were 'damn that's Naruto's mom' that and the fact that Jiraiya in the same frame seemed to have this almost awed expression. Later finding out her personality was scary similar to Sakura in how she greeted Naruto, I mean Kushina greets Naruto, he acts like a moron she clobbers him, now who does that remind you of.


	6. Chapter 6 edited

Chapter 6

Tazuna actually felt some much needed relief and not really knowing the protocol for shinobi missions didn't really understand what was happening. All he knew was that he got three genin, a chunin, and two jonin for the price of a C ranked mission. He had been told before he left to get supplies for his bridge that C ranked missions usually involved either a single unit of a Jonin instructor and three genin or two chunin, for what Gatou had on his tail right now he doubted he would survive the encounter. However, thanks to whatever back log on missions the Leaf had he now felt he had enough protection to make his chances of survival go up. As the group walked he noted the lazy looking silver haired Jonin at the back reading an orange book with a blonde haired genin talking to the pink haired genin casually, apparently they were an item. _To be dating at such a young age_. What the bridge builder never thought was many shinobi married fairly young do to the lifestyle it wasn't odd to celebrate weddings of two shinobi shortly after the couple grew into maturity at age eighteen. The builder then focused on the dark haired genin who seemed to have a permanent scowl on his face, finally the two leading point and apparently another couple as the wild looking female Chunin was discussing wedding preparation with equal wild abandon.

Little did the builder know that Naruto had shadow clones surrounding the area in a two mile radius scouting or the fact that Hana's dog-nin were doing the same in a one mile to half a mile radius. The clones would go to farthest point in their search pattern before falling back to where the triplets searched then repeat the process. Same could be said for the nin-dogs as they would go scout up to the walking group only to disappear again and search until they met up with the shadow clones and repeat. The buffer zone was huge and while not completely perfect it did the job as a shadow clone found a puddle that should not be present in a place that hadn't seen rain in two weeks. The clone dispelled giving the information not only to the original but to the rest of the clones.

XXX

Naruto never halted in his conversation with his girlfriend, simply offered a subtle series of handsigns that only the shinobi in the group picked up warning them of the genjutsu ahead. So when the two Mist missing-nin struck, they were completely unprepared for the backlash as three Genin and six shadow clones hammered into them. Sasuke and Naruto slammed a combined Great Breakthrough and a Great fireball jutsu into the lead missing nin who had to dodge only to be hammered from behind by the Inuzuka knocking him to the ground and out of the picture. The second missing-nin barely had time to react before Hiryu drove the reverse side of his sword into the nin's gut knocking the wind out of him. Hiryu crouched slamming the hilt of his sword in the missing nin's face before he could recover. "Mezu and Gozu the Demon Brothers, often seen working with Zabuza Momochi, Demon of the Bloody Mist. Safe to say I was right about the parameters."

Kakashi sighed heavily, "I hate it when you are right, to quote Shikaku, it's troublesome."

Hana and Naruto were busy tying the two missing-nin up, "Seems like overkill, don't you think?" Hana asked. "Two Jonin, a Chunin, and three genin against an A ranked Jonin and two chunin."

"It's not, remember, four member squad, Zabuza probably has someone with him. He probably thought he was dealing with two chunin or a Genin squad with a single Jonin. But that's neither here nor there, but it does confirm that the Hokage was lied to by a client."

Tazuna looked nervous, "Please, you must understand, my village is broke and starving."

"Which you could have explained to the Hokage and he would have offered a Jonin squad that could handle Zabuza and only charged you for a C ranked mission at the time and billed you for an A ranked one in the future once your village got back on its feet," Hiryu explained. "Lying puts not only the lives of a genin squad and a Jonin or two chunin in danger but yours as well, not a smart move on your part at all."

"I'm sorry, it's just, I was scared," The old bridge builder stated.

The plain looking Jonin smirked, "Don't worry about it old man, you'll still be paying for an A ranked mission for this down the road, but did you seriously think I brought all this back up with me for the bullshit reason I gave. If I needed to go on a mission after this one was over I'd simply escort my squad back then head to next mission, as it is, I'm essentially paying for Kakashi to be here," he glanced at Kakashi who's eye smiled. "Don't act so smug Cyclops, remember the mission."

The silver haired jonin nods, "Yep, I should be half way there by now," As if on cue the Kakashi standing there exploded into a column of smoke.

"He was a shadow clone?" Naruto stated.

The plain looking jonin nodded the feral looking smile appeared again, "Yep, now let's get Tazuna home; if things pan out like they should Zabuza should be greeting us once we get to the Land of Waves."

As the group walked only the three genin noted that Hana had vanished into the trees once the group met the boatman at the shore. "You know Hiryu-sensei can be really scary at times," Naruto whispered to his rosette teammate and girlfriend.

Sakura giggled softly, "I know, lucky he's on our side, can't believe he figured out we would run into missing-nin on this mission."

"The moment I saw Gatou Shipping on the map of Wave, I knew what was going on I also know that Gatou has a huge bounty on his head one he doesn't even know about," Hiryu stated casually looking at the huge bridge as it came into view.

"Really who put the bounty on him?" Tazuna asked.

"Who knows, a rival shipping company, a village like yours that was buried under foot, possibly a former slave that was once owned by the little tyrant, all I know that the bounty is a black market bounty," Hiryu replied.

"Um, sensei what are black market bounties?" Sakura asked.

"Black market bounties are paid by a secret group and funded by every village; they are used primarily as a way to clean up messes without being associated with a single village. Mostly S-ranked missing nin trying to earn a quick buck to keep hunter-nins off their back by bribing their villages. It's why people like Orochimaru of the Sanin and Itachi are still on the run, that and those two didn't earn their reputation as S-Ranked missing-nin for nothing," the plain looking Jonin explained. "Maybe if you put aside your impatience Sasuke, you could become a hunter-nin be given the assignment of hunting Itachi down."

Sasuke scowled but said nothing, _He killed my clan I could care less about the village I want to be strong enough to kill my brother not tomorrow or even the day after tomorrow I want the power today if I could get it! _The Uchiha turned his sharingan on the tomoe marks spinning wildly.

"Turn them off, genin we are not in combat," the only thing the Jonin received was a defiant stare. "Really, really, this is how it's going to be. Fine, Sasuke Uchiha in willful disregard to my orders," before the Uchiha could react Hiryu slammed a paper seal between the Uchiha's eyes knocking him off his seat and onto the boat floor. "I've had it with his attitude and his disregard of my orders," the plain looking Jonin opened a storage seal and picked up the Uchiha before setting him down on the seal, with three handsigns the dark haired genin vanished Hiryu wrapped up the seal and slipped it into his vest pocket.

Sakura barely spared the whole thing a glance looping her arm around Naruto's and laying her head on his shoulder, gone was her fangirlism and her reasons to care about what happen to her once crush. Naruto simply shook his head having always felt their sensei was fair minded and even nice most of the time, "So, sensei, new team member when we get back?" Naruto asked.

"Yes, I heard some good things from Hana-chan and Kurenai about this one genjutsu user Kurenai trained, girl needs some friends and maybe an exorcism but she's certainly be better than the Uchiha. So once I get back from my secondary mission the three of us will visit her, if that's alright with you," Hiryu said noting Tazuna looked nervous.

"Long as she doesn't move in on my boyfriend I'll be happy," Sakura smiled seeing Naruto blush.

"Your now one team member down," Tazuna stated nervously.

"And we have another team member and her very capable nin-dogs scouting, don't worry Tazuna, you're safe," Hiryu assured the old man as the boat came to the docks. The foursome walked along the path before Naruto launch a kunai into a group of bushes. When the two genin pulled back the bushes to reveal a white rabbit.

"DROP!" Hiryu shouted as a huge sword flew over their heads all three jumped to their feet Hiryu pulled the scabbard of his sword from his back and strapped it to his waist, "Zabuza been what six years, still trying to become Mizukage or are you still drooling over Mei?"

Zabuza jumped off his sword freeing it from the tree it was stuck in, "Should have known that Mezu and Gozu would have trouble with you Hiryu, the Battousai of the Hidden Leaf."

"Didn't answer the question Zabuza you still with Mei or did you try to do things on your own?" Hiryu asked firmly.

"I promised to help get more money for the resistance, not easy when the only ones willing to hire me are gangsters," Zabuza stated with a growl.

"You know the civil war is a Water country matter only, no one else can get involved," Hiryu softly replied.

Zabuza nodded showing for the briefest of moments that he wasn't a heartless monster that many were led to believe by his reputation. "Then I guess this makes us enemies."

"You know you can't defeat me, the only one in the Seven Swordsman that could is Kisami," The plain looking Jonin looked at his fellow swordsman pleading for him to stand down.

"No choice," Zabuza stated firmly charging at Hiryu who adopted a ready stance and not even before getting half way Hiryu seemed to vanish from his spot and reappear behind the mist missing-nin sheathing his sword just as his opponent screamed in agony. Zabuza dropped to the ground bonelessly as the joints in his elbows and knees were sliced open.

"Whoa, did you see that?" Naruto exclaimed, Sakura nodded numbly as Hiryu walked over to the prone mist swordsman.

"_Quadruple Piercing Fang!_" A second later a masked figure slammed into the ground next to Zabuza groaning softly. Hana and her three nin-dogs following landing surrounding the masked figure, each dog pinning the person to the ground teeth dug into the flesh, Hana had a kunai at the person's throat. "Here's team member number four," the woman sniffed. "The kunoichi of the group smells kind of like my apprentice only not as strongly."

The masked figure seem to freeze at those words, Zabuza winced. "Should have known wherever you are your wild child teammate wouldn't be far behind," the man chuckled weakly, "I'm surprised stoic isn't here either."

"I'm sure he's around, but Itachi is kind of on the run right now, people tend to not like the idea of him slaughtering his entire clan," Hiryu stated.

Kakashi appeared a few minutes later, "I see you didn't really need me for this."

"Kakashi of the Sharingan this whole thing was doomed from the start," Zabuza stared up at the sky wincing at the pain.

"Did you take care of the pint sized tyrant?" Hiryu asked the silver haired Jonin who eye smiled. "Any goodies?"

"150,000 ryo, some slaves I freed by the way and gave them each a small share of the cash to get them home," the silver haired jonin dropped what was left of the money next to Zabuza. "Sure about the bounty?"

"The resistance needs it more than the Hidden Leaf, should give them more than enough to finish the civil war a good two years ahead of schedule, I believe," Hiryu stated earning a look of shock from the Mist nin. "Heh, black market bounties Zabuza, just because the Hidden Leaf won't openly support the resistance in the Hidden Mist civil war doesn't mean we can't help in some degree. Besides if you think I want Mei chasing me down to spit lava at me again, you're high."

Zabuza blinked a few times before laughing and wincing in pain, the three nin-dogs releasing the masked figure who weakly pulled her mask off, "What did you mean I smelled similar to your apprentice?" The masked girl asked.

Hana pulled out her medical kit, while not good at human medical ninjutsu she did know how to apply bandages and disinfect wounds. "See the pink haired girl, you and her might have been related at one time as you smell similar but since it's so faint I'd say the blood lines you share might be diluted," Hana looked up. "Sakura help me out here."

XXX

After tending to both the masked girl, who stated her name was Haku, and Zabuza, the group parted ways but not before Haku asked Sakura about her family. Sakura explained to Haku that her family had been in the Hidden leaf since the time of the second Shinobi war but before that had lived in the water country, two generations of Haruno had come and gone during that time. Haku then surprisingly hugged the rosette haired girl mumbling the word cousin before departing with Zabuza to turn in Gatou's head to the black market bounty office then head to the resistance in the water country. Sakura spent a better part of the day, after the two Mist nin left, feeling numb while Naruto spent the same amount of time trying to snap her out of it only to get a bop to the head followed by sharing his first kiss with Sakura, he didn't count the one with Sasuke as it was both gross and accidental. Hiryu and Hana departed for their mission leaving Kakashi in charge of the two genin however with the threat of Zabuza gone the bodyguard mission on Tazuna was a breeze. The two spent most of the time sparring, guarding the bridge builder or making out. Kakashi also gave them each one knew jutsu to master, he gave Sakura the Hidden Mist jutsu and Naruto he began showing the first step to the Rasengan who in turned started showing Sakura.

Author's Note: Now onto Hiryu Himura the OC character of this fic, in terms he's Itachi's equal so just imagine Itachi if he hadn't become a missing-nin and was Team Seven's sensei. Hiryu's personality and appearance try to imagine Jason Bourne mixed with Edward Elric when he's being serious its why he was able to pretty much anticipate everything before hand and maneuver to make this Land of Waves arc very brief. Also I'm basically putting Sasuke in a smaller sub plot from here on out and putting Yakumo in as the third team member and no this won't be a harem story I've tried that before and it ended up badly I've put Tenchagan up for adoption because of it. I'm just not good with harem fics I like reading them so if anyone has Naruto harem stories that can be suggested on that's a good read let me know. I'm also putting up my Naruto/Superman crossover fic for adoption I can't get it going.


	7. Chapter 7 edited

Chapter 7

(cue City of the Ancients from the Final Fantasy VII soundtrack)

The Hidden Whirlpool Village home to arguably the strongest clan of fuinjutsu users in the Elemental Nations, the Uzumaki Clan, both feared and respected. Sister village to the larger Hidden Leaf village united through the marriage of the First Hokage Hashirama Senju and Mito Uzumaki, birthplace of Kushina Uzumaki the legendary Red Hot Habanero who was said to be the Fourth Hokage's equal on the battlefield. Hiryu Himura and Hana Inuzuka stared down at the villages hulking ruin weeping openly in place of their long dead sensei and at the immense sadness having never known the people of this village. "The third shinobi war started because of what happened here," Hiryu said sadly as he and Hana walked through over grown grass fields that were once walk ways, stone and wood structures caved inward from the remnants of shops and homes that once held hundreds of people both members of the Uzumaki clan and from other smaller clans. "Such a terrible waste of life, all done in the name of fear," Hiryu whispered, gently pulling a piece of cloth free and holding it out to see the Uzumaki clan swirl. The very same swirl both he and Hana had on their flak jackets.

Hana nodded taking his hand and squeezing it, "I'm glad we came here alone, I don't know how Naruto or Sakura would have reacted."

Hiryu returned the nod as the two walked slowly through the rubble of the once proud village now a battered husk. The vault the two had come searching for was at the center of the village in the central tower where the head of the Uzumaki clan had lived and ruled, the man had been Mito Uzumaki's nephew and Kushina's father. The tower, overall, was just as trashed as the rest of the village, having collapsed during the first assault from Stone and Cloud forces. Hiryu suspected that someone within the Leaf had dropped intel to these forces; _Only someone the Uzumaki clan would trust could betray them so badly, it was probably Danzo but I got no proof_, using shadow clones Hiryu and Hana cleared the rubble away leading into the collapsed tower. Once inside, the two took great pains not to ruin the already destroyed hulk even more, hoping to leave the dead some peace and quiet not wanting to disturb their eternal rest. None, except an Uzumaki, knew where the true village vault was, though judging by the amount of ransacking outside the tower, many have tried to find it with little success.

Hana sighed, "I wonder if Itachi came here after the Massacre, I mean Kushina-sensei told the three of us the location shortly after she found out she was pregnant."

Hiryu nodded, "Was going to be our first mission without her after Naruto was born, come here and loot the vault bring everything all back to her and she'd give us all free food for a week," he chuckled, "if I recall, Itachi stated he just wanted a lifetime supply of pocky."

The wild looking young woman giggled as they marched through a long hallway until they came to something that many could be considered out of place, unless you knew the eating habits of any Uzumaki which many in the Elemental Nations did. Before Hiryu and Hana was an entire wall lined with boxes of top ramen and cupped ramen. Hiryu simply shook his head smiling sadly at the huge wall. "They hide their entire vault in plain view behind boxes of Ramen, only the Uzumaki clan would do something so unpredictable and yet so simple," Hiryu walked up to the first box and simply picked it up, the moment the box left the ground a seal underneath the box activated and the rest of the boxes melted away like sand dropping to the ground and vanishing.

The Uzumaki clan vault turned out to be a massive underground structure with scrolls, books, and stone tablets all lining the walls ranging from large to very small. The Jonin and the chunin were awed by the sight. "And to think all this belongs to Naruto, he could create over a thousand clones to read these and still need at least a billion more clones to cover everything."

"How old are some of these?" Hana asked looking at some of the stone tablets. "They must go back to the Six Sage maybe even before him."

"Don't know, I wanted to come here to find that family tree scroll Kushina-sensei told us about, but this is overwhelming," The plain looking jonin walked over to a scroll and blinked in shock. "How to create an elemental kekkei genkai, Ice. I think you might be right Hana-chan, I think this is where the Six Sage stored everything when he created the Shinobi world, he entrusted those secrets to his clan." The two lovers walked quietly along finding various scrolls on seals, ninjutsu, genjutsu, taijutsu, kenjutsu, and kekkei genkai along with the names of the various families entrusted with the knowledge, most of which the two knew had been wiped out during the Hidden Mist bloodline purges.

"Maybe if we give some of these to the Hidden Cloud as a token of goodwill we could obtain a peace agreement with them?" Hana asked looking at the lost kekkei genkai scrolls.

Hiryu thought about it before shaking his head, "It's not our place Hana-chan, these are Naruto's scrolls by birthright, it should be his decision whether or not to give them out," He stated coming to a large alter, looking at it a minute he smiled, "Ah, here we go, the Uzumaki clan family tree," Hana looked at it seeing all the branches descending from the Sage of the Six Path noting that the tree didn't just cover the Uzumaki clan, but also the Senju, Uchiha, and the Hyuga. "So Naruto, Princess Tsunade, Sasuke, Itachi, Hinata, Hiashi, Hanabi, and Neji are all related in some way?"

Looking at the family tree a few seconds the plain looking jonin shook his head, "Yes and no, see here, Sasuke Uchiha, the First's wife Yushino gave birth to Izuna, Madara, and a third one I can't make out the name, Madara and Izuna's family line continues down the Uchiha line ending with Itachi and Sasuke the little shit, while the third child I suspect might be a woman eventually married a Hyuga both names are so worn by time I can't read them but somewhere a long her line the Sharingan must have mutated turning it into the Byakugan," Hana nods and then gives a light chuckle. "What?"

"You're such a history otaku Hiryu-kun," Hana smiled kissing his cheek.

Only looking mildly offended before turning back to the tapestry, "Anyway the Senju clan starts with Yosho Senju and goes until Princess Tsunade and Nawaki, that's where the Uzumaki clan come in, starting with Shinji Uzumaki as the first clan head and his wife," Hiryu traces down each ending path and his eyes widen. "There's four lines still running, Kushina-sensei had two older siblings and a young one."

The Inuzuka rushed up now interested searching until she found what her fiancée found, true to his word there were four lines that hadn't shown the infamous upside down T stating the family line was extinct. "Who?"

"The first is Kushina-sensei's eldest brother Nagato Uzumaki not much else only that it shows he has the Rinnegan," he heard Hana gasped which was understandable none had seen the legendary dojutsu since the Six Sage. "Let's see, second sensei's second oldest sibling Yukira Uzumaki deceased but gave birth to a daughter Karin, husband died shortly before childbirth, means the poor girl is an orphan," Hiryu sighed heavily. "Wish this thing gave exact locations would be a snap to find them."

"And the last one?" Hana asked even though she could read it herself she just loved hearing her fiancée when he was in history seeking mode.

"Inaba also deceased same day as her husband not suspicious at all," Hiryu stated coolly. "She also had a daughter Tayuya Uzumaki. Says Karin has obtained the Uzumaki's sensor, longevity, and dense chakra gifts, Tayuya a musical genjutsu kekkei genkai also longevity," Hiryu frowned when he saw something underneath Tayuya's name three distinct tomoe marks he recognized. "Orochimaru has her," he stated pointing to the marks for Hana to see.

"The Heaven Curse seal, he's marked her like he marked Anko," Hana growled softly. "He killed her parents and took her."

The plain faced jonin's hand clenched into a fist, staring at the tapestry before jumping up onto the ceiling above it and very gently unhooking it from the wall. "Let's start putting this stuff into storage scrolls, the sooner we get this done the sooner we get finished and back home."

"You think the Hokage will organize a search for those three, and would they even want to meet Naruto?" Hana asked.

"Tayuya maybe a lost cause, as for the other two I don't know we'll wait and see in the meantime let's get all this packed up and head home. I have an Uchiha to get put on trial for being an idiot and I know Naruto will just go ape over half these scrolls," Hiryu chuckled at the last part. Hana shook her head creating a few shadow clones, her fiancée doing the same as the group spread out beginning to seal every scroll in storage scrolls.

(end City of the Ancients)

XXX

After returning to the Hidden Leaf Kakashi gave the storage scroll that contained Sasuke to the Hokage. When the old man asked why Sasuke was in said scroll, Kakashi simply shrugged explaining the Uchiha had disobeyed orders on a mission, Team 7 had more than enough back up to take care of any threat. Sarutobi nodded unsealing the Uchiha boy noting the boy had a chakra suppressing seal right between the boy's eyes. He signaled his ANBU to take the Uchiha back to his home and place him under house arrest until the boy's sensei returned from mission. He then turned to Naruto and Sakura, giving them a pleasant smile asked them to make a report. What Sarutobi half expected was to see his surrogate grandson go crazy in explanation, only to be shocked when the whisker marked blonde did his best to just cover the facts, with Sakura adding her two cents when the boy had trouble describing certain details.

"I see at the start of the mission you, Hana, and Sasuke took out one of the Demon brothers while Hiryu took care of the other," Sarutobi clarified getting nods from both genin. "Very well thank you, when Hana and Hiryu return I'll have them finish the report, and thank you Kakashi, for your work against Gatou, you can go."

Kakashi bowed before producing his porn and shunshin out of the room, Naruto and Sakura left through the door, the whisker marked blonde opening it for the rosette haired girl. The old hokage sat quietly for a few moments before sighing heavily, "He's growing up."

"I know, strange to see him not bouncing off the walls like he did a month ago," a man with long white spikey hair stated appearing on the window ledge, his face somber for a moment before a small, sad smile forming on his face. "I watched those two walk through the village on the way here, I could swear I was seeing Minato and Kushina for a second."

Hiruzen turned looking at his former student, "Interesting, considering the girl up until three months ago was a devout Uchiha follower."

Jiraiya winced, "A fangirl, god I hated those kinds of girls, followed poor Minato everywhere."

"Yes, wasn't too thrilled about them myself," Sarutobi rubbing his beard. "As for Sakura's change of heart, there were several contributing factors. Hiryu Himura becoming her Jonin-sensei for one and Sasuke's own cruelty and single minded ambition. As of right now the boy is at his compound waiting for his sensei to return from a C ranked mission."

"One of Kushina's brats huh, so I take it Naruto knows who his mother is by now?" Jiraiya asked tentatively.

The old hokage nodded giving another sigh, "Yes thankfully Hiryu hasn't told Naruto about his father yet, but I only think he hasn't because the man went looking for something at the Hidden Whirlpool Village remains."

"What could he possibly find in all that rubble?" Jiraiya asked.

"The Uzumaki Clan vault," Hiruzen stated pulling out a faded looking mission scroll handing it to his former student. "Minato had this made up two weeks before Kushina gave birth to Naruto."

Jiraiya read the mission report and to whom it was to be given to, "To Team Kushina, go to the remains of the Hidden Whirlpool Village, find the Hidden Uzumaki clan vault, retrieve all documents inside, return them to your sensei for mission completion, S ranked mission, bonus fee for discretion. Sensei, I don't think we were supposed to know about this."

"I know, the information held in that vault is both a great treasure and a great danger, I also believe that Hiryu and Hana are retrieving the contents as we speak to give to Naruto," Sarutobi stated softly.

Jiraiya slumped against the window sill looking dumbfounded, "Sensei, you remember what Mito said about that vault on how massive it is. The things in that vault are what cause the third war and practically wiped out the Uzumaki clan."

The old man leaned forward feeling even older, "Kushina wanted those things to protect her family, you know that more than anyone, she was always fiercely protective of those that she found precious. It was probably one of her most endearing and wonderful qualities. This world has become a far darker place for me since she and Minato gave their lives for this village and their son," he looked at the toad sannin for a moment, "Did Minato leave anything with you in case of his death?"

"That silly toad wallet of his had it since he was boy, he asked me to give it to Naruto, I gave it to him anonymously on his sixth birthday, why?"

"Did you find anything that might indicate a seal?" Sarutobi asked.

"Nope, but I honestly didn't check it for one, who'd check a kids wallet for a seal," Jiraiya stated before slapping himself on the forehead, "Minato and the firecracker must have left something for him on that thing."

"We'll worry about after Hiryu and Hana get back something tells me the month leading up to the chunin exams is going to be very interesting," Sarutobi stated.

Author's Note: Well I got some people interested in doing some beta reading for me hopefully in the future my stuff will be easier to read and far more enjoyable. I've read a few Naruto and Yakumo fics none are really good mostly because the amount bashing for certain characters. I hate the Sakura bashing in most fics, the Sasuke bashing I feel is too nice, when you bash that guy you don't tap him you got to bring the hammer down. Granted most of my fics I lay off the Sasuke bashing a lot because that just how the fic flows so I shouldn't judge to harshly. If I can read around the Sakura bashing I can deal with it especially if it's not central to the story but if its 50 percent bashing for the sake of bashing, 25 percent lemon, and 25 percent story I just can't handle the read. I am sorry about the messed up names for Sakura's parents and Mikoto these will be fix when the stories are beta read and I repost this I promise.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

It had been three days since returning from the Land of Waves, now Naruto was waiting for his sensei to return and getting a bit restless to say the lease. He spent the majority of the time with his Sakura-chan either doing their chakra control exercises like their sensei had explained needed to be done constantly until they started taking missions where the constant need to keep control wouldn't be a factor. When they finished that, they did some light contact sparring at least until one or both ended up in a hold had their faces practically touching, then said sparring drifted into a heavy kissing session. These sessions often led the whisker marked blonde feeling both extremely happy and extreme confused. His confusion often stemmed by how his body reacted to the kissing and Sakura's wandering hands, he was more than a little unsure if the body reactions were natural or not. He was sure the academy taught the students about them but more than likely he got shafted on the lesson because of his tenant. So since his Sakura-chan wanted to spend the day with her mom, Naruto felt it was the perfect opportunity to find out why he felt the way he did when the rosette haired girl let her hands wander and why her reactions when he did the same her were so intense.

At first Naruto thought about asking Iruka but it was mid-morning and he was likely teaching classes. Next he thought about the old man Hokage but when he was younger he recalled this was the time the old man did meetings until lunch then had paperwork the rest of the day. Since a lot squads had come to give mission reports yesterday the old man would be extremely busy catching up on that paperwork. Granted before joining squad seven Naruto would have interrupted him anyway regardless of paperwork but Hiryu instill in the whisker marked blonde the responsibilities of Hokage since the boy wanted the job himself when he got older.

XXX Flashback XXX

Hiryu smiled slightly as Sasuke left without a word as usual while Sakura stayed behind to give Naruto a peck on the cheek before leaving herself after the trio spent the majority of the day on Team building and tactics. "Now Naruto what do you think the job of Hokage means?"

"Um, the Hokage is the strongest ninja in the village," Naruto smiled.

With a chuckle Hiryu nodded, "very true however that is not everything the Hokage is and sometimes the Kage can abuse his or her power. An example would be what is happening in the Hidden Mist right now, a civil war because the Mizukage has wishes to kill anyone who has a blood line like Sasuke or your classmate Hinata," Hiryu explained.

"Why would the Mizukage do that?" Naruto asked.

"Fear would be my guess, but that isn't what I'm trying to tell you. See the Kage aren't just about being the strongest in the village. The Hokage is also the leader of this village, they order shinobi to do jobs, make decisions on team placements like ours, use information and get advice, attend long boring meetings on village happenings and doings, approve and deny missions, the list goes on and on," the plain faced jonin stated.

"Wow being Hokage must be hard," Naruto softly replied.

"Very but also extremely rewarding at the same time, Minato Namikaze our fourth Hokage didn't just become a hero because he sealed the fox within you Naruto or end the last shinobi war almost single-handedly, he also implemented several programs one that you have benefitted from, like the orphan-student allowance program. This program allowed children who entered the academy a monthly stipend to buy food, clothing, and a place to live if they didn't want to live in the orphanage which many didn't," Hiryu explained his face pained slightly.

"Were you an orphan sensei?" the whisker marked blonde asked.

"Yep, but I was lucky and not so lucky to know my parents," Hiryu chuckled sadly, Naruto blinked in confusion. "My mother died shortly before the war ended and my father died during the war itself. But again I'm getting off track," the plain faced man sighed. "Hokage is both a political figure and a military figure, and must constantly keep those in balance. Our Hokage loves each and every person in this village both civilian and shinobi alike but he will also order the death of that person he loves, especially in times of war or during times of political strife."

Naruto frowned sadly thinking, "You mean if I became Hokage and there was a war on I'd have to send Kiba, Shikamaru, or Hinata off to die?"

"Yes, same can be said about sending me, Hana, or," Hiryu paused eyes looking pained, "Sakura. War is not pleasant Naruto, and is a great trap. As Hokage to watch so many you love and cherish die to protect your home and the people in it is doubly so, but that shows the true strength of a leader."

The plain looking jonin watched the myriad of emotion play across his student's face before he saw something that made him smile, the same look he saw in his sensei many times. "One day I'll become Hokage, I won't give up or back down from anything until that day comes that is my Nindo, believe it!"

"Good now let's talk about your habit of interrupting the old man while he's working," Hiryu chuckled hearing Naruto whine.

XXX End Flashback XXX

Naruto didn't like the concept of sending Sakura-chan off to war if that ever happened but he understood that could be a possibility. He shook his head clearing of thoughts about being hokage, it was one of his dreams true but that wasn't his focus at the moment. His focus was trying to find someone who could explain why he felt funny when he and Sakura kissed among other things. Since his current sensei was out on a mission, his former one was working, and the only other male role model he had was also working he decided to get a female opinion. Hana was out with his sensei, Mebuki was out mainly because he didn't want to get killed by Sakura's mother. The only one he knew well enough after all he spent his fair share of time with Hiryu and Hana when not training to meet Tsume Inuzuka, Hana and Kiba's mother. The woman could be surprisingly blunt when she wanted to be always referring things in a more animalistic term, something the blonde boy found funny as hell. If there was one person that could help him understand what he was feeling it would be her, plus the fact that she had been a friend of his mother didn't hurt either, made hanging out with Kiba a little bearable especially after Tsume knocked her son upside the head for making fun of him. The woman had stated that Naruto was part of the pack because his mother had been and for Kiba to follow Naruto's example of being an alpha male.

Shrugging off his confusion with the Inuzuka matriarch he quietly headed to their compound hoping not to meet up with Kiba. _Yeah, like I need to hear dog-breath laugh at me because I don't know what's going on when Sakura-chan and I kiss._ He sighed walking up to the front of the compound and knocking. A few minutes later the door opened and Kurenai stood before him, "Hi Kurenai-sensei, um what are you doing here?"

Kurenai smiled softly, "Kiba hurt himself during training got one too many of Shino's kikai insects on him, he's suffering from chakra exhaustion."

"Wouldn't Shino call off the bugs before that happened?" the whisker marked blonde asked.

"This is Kiba we're talking about," Kurenai stated causing Naruto to chuckle.

"Head like granite and just as many rocks inside," another female voice stated Naruto looked to see by far the wildest looking woman he ever laid eyes on in his life, long brown spikey hair, slit like eyes and just like Kiba and Hana had red tattoo marks on her face behind her was the biggest nin-dog he had ever seen. "So what can I do for ya pup?"

The whisker marked blonde blushed slightly, "um, not sure if this perverted or anything but sensei stated that if I don't understand something I should ask questions."

Kurenai raised a single eyebrow before glancing at the Inuzuka Matriarch, "What are you going to ask Naruto?"

Naruto started rubbing the back of his head nervously while blushing up a storm feeling really uncomfortable about revealing his relationship with Sakura suddenly, he also felt that if anyone could help him with what was going on these two might and not sugar coat it. "W-Well Sakura-chan and I kind of been dating for a while."

He missed the look of sadness in Kurenai's eyes since he was busy trying not to stumble over his words and come off not sounding like a pervert. _Looks like it's too late Hinata. This could be devastating to her_.

"Really, well pup I'm glad to see the pink haired girl finally made the right choice selecting her alpha male, so what's the problem?" Tsume stated pleased at seeing her friend's son finally getting his bitch that he been sniffing at for nearly seven years.

"Well w-when were close and k-k-kissing, her hands start g-g-going all over and it makes me feel kind of weird, not the bad kind but…," Naruto cursed his stuttering but he felt so mortified revealing his kissing sessions with Sakura, to other people mostly because he didn't understand why he reacted the way he did.

Tsume growled softly, "damn academy instructors have a good mind to Fang over Fang the entire school."

"So it's normal?" Naruto asked almost sounding relieved.

"Yep," Tsume smirked. "Means you want to mate with your bitch, most natural thing in the world for an alpha male."

Naruto's eyes widen, "W-What!?"

Kurenai shook her head and rolling her eyes, "What Tsume stated while blunt is essentially true, you find Sakura highly attractive and your kissing sessions most likely are very heavy. Tell me do your hands wander?"

Naruto nods blushing more, "yeah and the more we go on warmer I get and stranger I feel, my head starts getting foggy."

The Inuzuka matriarch snickers for a second before her face turns serious, "Anything beyond that?"

Naruto shakes his head, "No Sakura-chan always stops and that's why I get confused I get all tingly."

"It's natural and thankfully Sakura is being very mature about it, making sure to halt things before they get way to serious," Kurenai replied. "Tsume looks like we'll have to explain the Kunai and the holster to him."

"Damn academy idiots," the Inuzuka matriarch grumbled before sighing she figured the academy instructor on sexual education conveniently left Naruto high and dry mostly likely because of the boy's tenant. "Okay listen up pup this will likely be the single most embarrassing moment of your life, prank backfires not included."

A sense of dread washed over the whisker marked blonde looking at the two women as they both led him into the living room.

XXX

After nearly three hours of explanations on the world of sex to the thirteen year old the boy wanted to crawl away and die of embarrassment at the descriptions, diagrams, and everything else that revolved around the subject matter. But aside from that he now knew why he felt the way he did during his make out sessions with his Sakura-chan and knew never cross a certain line unless the rosette haired girl wanted to cross it first. The horrifying descriptions of rape that the older women had given him added something new to his hate list for future references. The embarrassing discussion also helped make his feelings for Sakura stronger and his appreciation for women in general greater. "Thank you Kurenai-sensei and Tsume-obasan," Naruto stated softly. "You were right that was the most embarrassing thing I've experienced."

"Heh, should have seen Kiba when I gave him the talk, didn't speak to me for two whole weeks. It was like a vacation," the Inuzuka matriarch chuckled ruffling the blonde's hair. "Considering if your mom had been here she probably been the one to give ya the talk, your dad was such a pansy about those things, and that's with having the sensei that he did."

Kurenai frowned, "It's not nice to speak about him like that Tsume."

"Yeah I suppose your right, got to admit fainting when he found out he was going to be a father was pretty funny," Tsume snickered Kurenai did smile a bit.

After a few moments Naruto and the two older women talked mostly about how he and his team were doing. He went through what Hiryu was teaching them and what they were learning with a few others. "Sensei said Sasuke-teme going to be getting the boot, when he gets back guess that means we'll be getting someone new as our teammate, hope so."

Tsume sighed, "bound to happen, so any idea on who you might get as a new teammate?"

The whisker marked blonde gave her a deadpanned stare. "I forgot about it and anyways sensei always springs stuff on us last minute usually when it involves tactics. I'm well rounded with Taijutsu and Ninjutsu now that my taijutsu has been pretty much fixed, Sakura-chan is good with medical ninjutsu and has been studying the scroll sensei gave her on taijutsu enough to make her way strong," he smiled and Tsume could swear if he had a tail it be wagging like crazy. "So knowing sensei it be someone good in genjutsu and taijutsu to fill the gap of not having the Sharingan on the team. Which means more team building and taijutsu practice to bring our teammate up to speed."

Kurenai frowned none of the wash out academy students were very strong in Genjutsu she knew because it was something she originally aimed for before settling on a tracking team, like the one her father had with Tsume, Hiashi, and Shibi. "I don't recall seeing anyone in the academy strong in Genjutsu."

"Meh, don't care really long it isn't Sasuke-teme I'll be happy," Naruto smiled jumping to his feet lingering traces of embarrassment gone. "Thank you for everything, I'm going to Ichiraku's." He started to walk away.

"Freeze!" Tsume barked. "You'll be eating with me and Kiba tonight no arguments do I make myself clear!"

"Y-Yes, Tsume-obasan," the boy stuttered the woman was right scary at times but showed her gentle side too, this was the mix.

"Good," the Inuzuka matriarch smirked. _It's going to take a joint effort Kushi-chan but Mebuki and I will help your pup be the strong alpha male he's meant to be, with a little encouragement from his bitch._

Author's Note: Naruto's emotional growth didn't start until way later in the series and many overlook the fact because he used the Sexy Jutsu on perverts that he knew about sex, he only knew what was pleasing to the eye hence why he took Konohamaru to the book store to look at porn magazines and the bathhouse to peak on women yet I don't think he understood the reasoning behind why girls found the jutsu offensive otherwise he wouldn't use it, plus it made for some of the funniest comedic moments in the series. And I might be reading too much into this when Konohamaru and Naruto meet in the first episode of Shippuden and Konohamaru show's off his twin sexy-jutsu that Naruto would have actually revealed a new jutsu that made any girl angry if anything I think he acted the way he did mainly to get a bonding moment with the kid he considered his surrogate younger brother and knew Sakura would lay him out before he actually did anything. But like I said I might be reading too much into it, but Naruto not being able to understand the meaning of intimacy could a defining truth. However I do believe the only girl he has like or loved in the entire series is Sakura regardless of all the bashing and hate people give the pairing it is what it is. Like Love Hina, Inuyasha, and Ranma are prime examples of what Naruto and Sakura's relationship is like.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

Sasuke Uchiha was currently sitting in a small wooden chair surrounded by a tribunal of the Hidden Leaf Shinobi, mostly the Clan Heads, the Shinobi Council Elders, a few high ranking Jonin, Jiraiya of the Legendary Sannin and of course the Hokage himself. They were present mainly because his loathsome sensei had returned and immediately set this farce of a trial up, at least in his mind.

"Ibiki, please state the charges brought before this tribunal on one, Sasuke Uchiha," Sarutobi called out.

"Willful disregard of orders on a mission, activating his Sharingan while not in combat against orders, attempting to subvert authority over his Jonin captain and one littering violation," Ibiki said.

Hiryu who was present raised an eyebrow at the last charge, "Seriously?"

The heavily scarred man nodded, "We take keeping our streets tidy very seriously, the brat tossed an apple on the ground in plain view of a trash bin."

Sarutobi sighed shaking his head, "Sasuke Uchiha, these charges are not just from your current Jonin sensei, but from your instructors at the academy after your clan massacre. These are serious grounds enough to have you removed from the Shinobi corps. Your inability to work with your teammates, going behind your sensei's back to the civilian council who has no authority of over shinobi matters, and your blatant insubordination, I'd could have you sent to the stockade with your chakra and sharingan sealed."

"You can't do that; I need those to kill my brother!" Sasuke shouted standing up.

The old hokage released enough killing intent on the boy to make him wish he had died, as the boy dropped back into his seat gasping for breath, "I am the Hokage, I'm well with in my rights now to have you executed on the spot for this act of defiance and I am even more inclined to throw you to the wolves in the stockade than I was before. You're lucky your sensei acted on your behalf well before you arrived," the old man turned his attention to the plain looking Jonin. "Are you sure what you are planning is a good idea, Inoichi's mental evaluation of the boy leaves much to be desired?"

"I agree that his attitude is way too much like his father and his mind is darker than that of Orochimaru or Madara, it would be a monstrous risk letting him go with the way he's been acting," Hiryu stated calmly glancing at the boy who looked utterly confused. "You've called me soft before, Hokage-sama, but I simply can't let Mikoto's son and Kushina-sensei's godson be thrown to the wolves, they would never forgive me even though the brat deserves it. But I can't allow him to stay on my team and undermine it. Sakura and Naruto remind me so much of Sensei and Minato it is almost frightening. So to keep Sasuke under thumb and develop him into a shinobi his mother would be proud of, I would like him to be assigned to Kakashi as his apprentice with the provision that the ANBU watch them around the clock until the boy is allowed to begin Hunter-nin training."

Danzo spoke, "Why hunter-nin training?"

Hiryu ruffled Sasuke's hair to which the boy scowled; the man looked sadly at him before turning to the old war hawk. "He wants to kill his brother and as much as I've tried to dissuade him, it is his single minded objective. So, if I can't dissuade it, then we might as well channel it, let Kakashi train him, put him in the hunter-nin program later and set him loose on all our missing-nin," The plain looking man shrugged.

The old hokage sighed looking at the boy who looked both bewildered and awed by the plain looking man, Sarutobi mentally chuckled. _Welcome to the world of Kushina Uzumaki, I swear even in death that woman drives me crazy. Her students followed her mannerisms and philosophies too closely, especially Hiryu_. "Very well, Sasuke Uchiha, you'll be reassigned to Kakashi Hatake for training and when Kakashi has determined you're ready for it you'll be placed in the Hunter-nin program, also, until such time, you and your new sensei will be put in one of our random outposts under ANBU guard, any promotions given to you will be determined by your sensei. Jiraiya will lead you to said outpost to ensure secrecy, you may go.

Sasuke sat up still recovering from the killer intent turning to leave, "I'm sorry sensei."

"Train hard Sasuke, this wasn't a gift, Kakashi will run you into the ground to get you to where he is at and the Hunter-nin program will be worse, if anything this will be a far worse punishment than what you would have gotten," Hiryu stated watching as the council slowly disbanded. "When I see you again, there are two heads I want you to bring before me, Orochimaru and your brother's."

Sasuke nods, "I understand."

"Now get going," Hiryu watched the boy leave heaving a heavy sigh, only Jiraiya, Sarutobi, and Ibiki remained as he turn to them.

XXX

"Who's going to replace him on your team?" Jiraiya asked then groaned seeing a familiar feral smile appear on the younger man's face. "Kami I hate that smile, everytime I saw it on Kushina it meant bad things were going to happen."

"Sensei loved her pranks," Hiryu chuckled. "I hear Naruto does too."

"More than I like to admit," Sarutobi shaking his head. "Are you sure about the one you want though she's been classified as unstable for a reason."

Jiraiya blinked wondering what was going on while Hiryu nodded, "She'll get along with Naruto no problem, they have eerily similar backgrounds. My only problem is, I would need to get her to Lady Tsunade to heal her frail constitution, so I might need to get an A ranked search mission to find her with Lord Jiraiya's help. I really want my team to take the upcoming Chunin exams in a month," Hiryu explained.

The old Hokage nods, "What about her reaction to Sakura?"

"Yakumo will more than likely attach to the girl like she would to an older sister, Sakura's temperament reminds me a lot of Kushina-sensei but her personality is closer to Minato-sama, which is really startling considering Naruto's temperament is like his father and he gets his personality from his mother. It's almost like having Sensei and Minato-sama in reverse," The plain looking shinobi explained.

"Are you nuts, you're going to put Yakumo Kurama on your team, aren't you aware she's loopy?!" Jiraiya yelled in a panic noting the young man gave him a walleye deadpanned expression.

"I seem to recall that I just stated I understand her mental situation, I also know that if anyone can help her get her head on straight, it would be Naruto, he just has that gift," the plain looking jonin sighed. "Now you start showing godparenting concern," The toad sage winced at the soft but poignant jab at his neglect. "Naruto knows by the way, and once I leave here he's going to be informed on who his father is and the fact that there are four other Uzumaki clan members left in the world besides him.

"There are three other's besides Tsunade, are you serious?" Hiruzen's pipe dropped from his lips.

Hiryu nods pulling out a storage that contain the Uzumaki clan family tree, "I found the vault and did what sensei order me to do," The man frowned slightly noting that both didn't look completely surprised at this. "Who told?" The man pouted.

"Blame Minato and his lack of finding good hiding places," Sarutobi chuckled.

Hiryu sighed shaking his head, "Anyway, what sensei described as massive didn't do the vault justice, the thing was located inside a cavern that had been smoothed out by Earth style jutsu and had things dating back to before the Six Sage's time. Now back to the three unknown Uzumaki, I didn't know this but Kushina-sensei had three siblings two older and one younger."

Hiruzen looked dumbfounded, "If she did, why didn't they come with her when she was brought here?"

"Don't know, the tree doesn't say that, just gives the date of birth, when they died, and where they were born and any latent abilities they have or were gifted such as Lady Mito, Sensei, and Naruto being Jinchuuriki. Both of Kushina-sensei's sisters are gone but they both had daughters of their own, Kushina-sensei's older sister had a daughter named Karin, same age as Naruto, born in the Hidden Grass region, don't know if she's still there or not. Kushina-sensei's younger sister's daughter was born in a village not far from the one my parents were from, her name is Tayuya and," the plain looking jonin looked grim, "under her name on the tree shows the Heaven curse seal like the one Anko has, I believe Orochimaru may have kidnapped the girl the day she was born and killed her parents."

Jiraiya growled softly beginning to pace, "I'll have the spy network find her and keep tabs on her, same with Karin," the toad sage stated after a minute.

Hiryu nods, "Kushina-sensei's eldest brother's name is Nagato, and it shows he bares the Rinnegan," He blinked seeing Jiraiya's face get really pale, "What?"

"Y-Y-You're absolutely certain of that," The toad sage asked.

"Sensei said the Clan family tree is one hundred percent accurate, Karin, Naruto, Tayuya, Lady Tsunade, and Nagato are all on this tree and all five are present their family lines still moving, it even shows Sakura as Naruto's significant other currently if they separate it'll go back to being just Naruto. I have no idea of the amount of seal work that is done on here, but man, it is extensive," Hiryu explained.

Jiraiya slumped against the table for a second, "Did you see Nagato with a significant other?"

"Yes, Konan I believe, no surname did you know them, Lord Jiraiya?" Hiryu stated more than it was an actual question.

The toad sage nodded running his hands down his face suddenly looking extremely old, "I trained them near the start of the third shinobi war shortly after the Whirlpool Village was destroyed and before Orochimaru started his experiments. All three said they were orphans Yahiko, Konan, and Nagato, I can't believe I never asked for their surnames the entire time I was training them. Was Yahiko an Uzumaki?"

Hiryu closed his eyes sorting through his memory of the Uzumaki clan family tree, "Second cousin, no direct blood relation to sensei but still an Uzumaki, his status is disease."

"If that's the case, where are they?" Jiraiya mused aloud.

"The tree doesn't say, would be easier if it did, but that's why you're the spy master, you old pervert," Hiryu smirked.

"Hey, I'm not a pervert!" Jiraiya shouts looking mildly offended.

"Oh yeah, then what are you?" The plain looking jonin asked his expression dry.

"I'm a SUPER PERVERT!" The toad sage proudly pronounced

With a deep sigh Hiryu turned to the old Hokage wondering how Minato and Mikoto had become so strong with a role model like that. "I'm going to meet my team then go with them to meet our new teammate, hopefully things will go well."

Sarutobi nods, "Take Kurenai with you, give the poor woman some closure and reassurance that the girl will be looked after."

Hiryu nodded bowed and shunshin out of the room, the old hokage turned to Jiraiya, "Get ready, once Hiryu finished gathering his team I want you to take them to find Tsunade, maybe convince her to come home and take this job from me," Sarutobi replied. "We'll put off sending Sasuke and Kakashi to the outpost until Kakashi finishes an assignment I have him doing for me."

The toad sage nodded smiling sadly, "My spy network is going to be working over time the next few months, trying to find three Uzumaki, Orochimaru, and information about this new organization that's been popping up recently."

"What organization?" the old man asked.

"A group very interested in the Biju calling themselves Akatsuki all S-Ranked criminals," the toad sage stated.

"Very grim news, keep me posted on them," Hiruzen picked up his pipe. "Just hope Hiryu hasn't bitten off more than he can chew with the Kurama girl."

XXX

_Warmth _this was Sakura's thoughts as Naruto sat up against a tree, his arms wrapped gently around her waist as they enjoyed the cool breeze underneath a tree not far from the training posts that made up training ground 7. She was in complete bliss right now, being with Naruto as his girlfriend for four months made up for the last six years as Sasuke's devout fangirl, she never felt so happy before, from training alongside him, having a lunch together, or going out on dates. Granted, not every moment was perfect and they did have fights, his idiotic moments and her bullheadedness tended to clash on occasions but nothing an apology and a long kiss couldn't fix. She practically rolled around laughing when he told her about his impromptu sex education moment with Tsume and Kurenai. She was also glad he managed to grab the courage to ask someone why he felt the way he did, as embarrassing as it was. If anything, it helped them get closer because he now knew what was off limits until she felt ready. Meantime, she was in heaven just using him as a cushion to relax as they waited for their sensei to finish with the tribunal. "So, who do you think this genjutsu user is going to be," Naruto asked.

"Don't know, but sensei did say it was going to be a girl, remember?" The rosette replied and after a moment she shook her head, "You forgot didn't you?" She heard him chuckled and could almost sense him wanting to scratch his head in embarrassment, "You're such a baka at times."

The rosette felt a feather light kiss on her neck making a phantom jolt of electricity go up and down her body in pleasure, "Hmm, but I'm your baka."

The girl whimpered as he began trailing kisses up and down her neck, "Not being fair Naruto," she mewled.

"Ninja," was his one word justification.

Both missed the distinct sound of someone shunshin next to them, "He's correct Sakura, and I got to commend him on turning you into jello with just a few kisses."

Both genin sprang to their feet sporting nuclear red blushes on their faces, causing the plain looking jonin to chuckle. "Sensei, warn us next time you do that!" Sakura shouted her face looking mortified.

"Sorry, Sakura but no can do, the two of you must learn to always be alert even in your own village, never know when an assassin has penetrated the walls under false pretenses sent here to kill you," the jonin explained. "Better to have me sneak up on you rather than said assassin, next time you'll be harder to kill if you have your guard up."

The rosette haired girl, having gathered her wits about her, nodded, "Sorry sensei and your right, we'll be careful next time," She sees her blonde whisker marked boyfriend nod in agreement.

"Great now let's go have to meet up with Kurenai before getting your new teammate," Hiryu reply as the two fell in behind him as they walked toward training ground 8.

"So, did Sasuke-teme get in serious trouble?" Naruto asked.

Hiryu nodded, "He's lucky, he shot off his mouth at the Hokage during the tribunal, the old man could have executed him for it."

"So did you get him off, I know I don't like the teme, but I don't want him in trouble," Naruto stated noting Sakura frowned.

"Not off, persay, but he's still in hot water he just going to get what he needs, lots of discipline and training where he needs it, probably never see him again unless you become Hokage Naruto," the plain looking Jonin smiled sadly.

"So, who's going to be our new teammate, sensei?" Sakura asked taking Naruto's hand as they walked.

"Her name is Yakumo Kurama, comes from a small but prominent clan of genjutsu users, she's considered a prodigy in the art. Turns out her parents weren't exactly loving, doting, or encouraging people, like most parents should be. I don't have the whole story though I wish I did but take what the village does to Naruto on a daily basis, add demonic possession and physical abuse to the mix, well let's just say the situation isn't pretty," The plain looking jonin explained. "I figure you and Naruto can help her."

"We will, believe it!" Naruto stated throwing his free hand into the air in determination.

"Never doubted it for a second, now the girl also has a weak constitution so the four of us and Lord Jiraiya will be leaving to find Lady Tsunade the moment we can convince Yakumo to come with us," Hiryu stated.

"Sensei, can Naruto and I kick Lord Jiraiya in the balls for neglecting Naruto?" Sakura asked her voice coming out almost in a growl.

"Permission granted, smash his nads," The plain looking jonin smirked evilly.

Author's Note: Now before the next chapter I'm going to watch the Yakumo filler arc if I can but if anyone can give me an overview of Yakumo's personality it would be helpful. All I know about this arc is that Naruto and Kurenai are involved in it somehow and that's it which probably why there are so many Naruto/Kurenai fan fics. I like putting the comedic elements into the story because many fan fiction writers tend to overlook the fact that through most of the series has some heavily funny moments and still can manage some great action and dramatic scenes granted Shippuden goes a little more for the dramatic and action, but it still has some comedy.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

Kurenai sighed heavily, looking down at Kiba again, the boy overexerted himself sparring with Shino. "This is the fourth time this week you've done this Kiba, and it's only Tuesday. Why do you do this?"

Shino adjusted his sunglasses, "He feels threaten by my presence sensei, his families ideals of the dominant male being in charge of a group. You will recall that his mother often refers to me as such, even though there is no logic to it."

Kiba growled trying to catch his breath his body strained from the lack of chakra do to Shino's insects eating most of it. "I'll beat you one of these days," He stated shaking his fist in the air before it slumps to the ground hearing Akamaru bark. "Shut up and I will too, there has got to be away around those things."

"Water jutsu helps," A voice stated causing the Inuzuka boy to groan he sees the plain looking face of his sister's fiancée enter his field of vision, a look of humor plastered there. "Got beat again I see."

"What are you doing here don't you have your own team to train?" Kiba growled.

Hiryu clutched his chest looking wounded, "My dear, future brother-in-law doesn't want me hanging out with him, you wound me Kiba," He looks over to Akamaru. "You need to train your pet more, Akamaru." The puppy barked wagging his tail.

"Traitor," Kiba pouted.

Kurenai just shook her head raising an eyebrow at the man and his students, very rarely did teams interact unless off duty. Considering this was middle of the day and both teams were in the midst of training, she had to wonder why squad seven was even here. "Kiba did raise a good point Hiryu, why are you here?"

"Sasuke has been reassigned so squad seven is currently one member short," Hiryu raised his hand to halt Kurenai's question. "Not one of yours or squad 10, but you do know the one I have in mind. As such, the Hokage wants you to accompany us to get her, if you like, you can bring your kids, lord knows Kiba could use the break."

"Hey!" Kiba shouted both Shino and Hinata were helping him up; they turned when they heard a familiar laugh. "Shut up Naruto!"

Hinata's face turned red, shyly turning to see something that made her blush vanish and replaced it with a cold chill. She was seeing Naruto and Sakura holding hands and, the way the grip was, indicated Sakura was the one who had taken Naruto's hand. _Kurenai-sensei s-said Naruto-kun and Sakura were dating, but I-I didn't believe it_. The gentle Hyuga looked away, her emotions shattered at the sight of her inspiration and her crush hand in hand with a girl she thought would never return the affection she got.

XXX

Hiryu watched the whole scene out the corner of his eye a second before focusing on Kurenai, "Who are we going to see," the red eyed woman said a bit in confusion before the things Naruto mentioned the other day said clicked. "Are you out of your mind, you're going to recruit Yakumo!" The normally calm woman shouted looking hysterical.

Hiryu stuck his finger in his ear wiggled it before pulling it out face relatively blank, "Yep and no, I'm not crazy, the girl is perfect for my team. True, she's not had a good life and your sealing up her abilities might have made her a tad unstable. I'm confident in my squad's abilities to help her, Kurenai," He said gently. "You saw how good she was and you knew the limits of your ability to teach her, but you were also afraid of her just because she has something that she can't control now what does that sound like."

The red eyed woman stiffened, glancing briefly at Naruto who was currently watching Sakura and looking confused as the rosette haired girl was trying to talk to Hinata. The woman winced, she had prepared the girl for what would happen, but didn't think the warning was taken seriously. She then focused on the whisker marked blonde and Hiryu's words, how eerily they echoed the villages' thoughts on Naruto and the Kyuubi. "I wanted to do what was best for her."

"And you did, but the Kurama clan has made it their mission to make that girl's life hell, and I want to take her away from it before it causes more problems than it helps," Hiryu explains.

"Say you help her and manage to get her on your squad, what about her frailness? You can't fix that," Kurenai brought up and groaned when she saw him smile.

"Very true, I can't fix her being weak and frail, but I know who can." The plain looking jonin chirped.

Kurenai sighed pinching her nose, "Damn history otaku, how much did you research before asking the hokage?"

The plain looking Jonin tapped his chin before he lets loose a Cheshire cat grin, "Most of your past with her, her family history, and her kekkei genkai."

The woman slumped her shoulders, shaking her head, "How Hana can stand you, I can never fathom."

"To quote my sexy fiancée, I'm awesome in the sack," Hiryu snickered for a second, "she also likes it when I speak about history, says it's like a warm glass of milk before bed."

"All right, just hope things don't go wrong, Yakumo and I parted on bad terms," Kurenai stated softly.

Hiryu nods, "That's why I asked your team to come along, Naruto sucks at genjutsu his ability to dispel it has gotten better though, but I prefer someone who can see and smell past it."

XXX

As the grouped walked to the Kurama clan compound located about a mile outside the village walls the rosette haired girl had spent the better part of the trip trying to come up with some form of an apology for Hinata. She knew she had no real reason to apologize for anything, Hinata never spoke up to Naruto or revealed her feelings to him. Still, Sakura felt she needed to justify herself to the Hyuga heiress after all, the last time the two girls were in Naruto's presence together, the rosette was still commander and chief of the Sasuke fan club right along-side Ino. "I finally understood how you felt about him, Hinata," The rosette finally stated, going for something else rather than an apology.

"If you knew, why?" Hinata asked softly.

The rosette haired girl started playing with her fingers like she did when she was younger before meeting Ino, a little nervous tick she had and she was glad it was surfacing again. _I guess almost all of the fangirl indoctrination is out of my system. _"I didn't intend for it to happen Hinata, everyone except maybe Kiba and Naruto himself knew you had a crush on him. It just did, I couldn't help myself, he's kind, passionate about everything he does, training, eating, having fun. Slowly I began to see what you saw in him and before I realized what was going on, I fell for him hard."

The pale eyed girl looked at the rosette haired girl, seeing her watch Naruto with a gentleness she had never seen before. Hinata knew what those eyes meant and was devastated by them, in the four months since team placements, Sakura had pulled a complete one eighty turn, she looked confident in herself, the muscle tone in her arms showed extensive and over-extensive training, gone were the girly battle dresses replaced with a blood red tank top, black loose fitting shinobi shorts, black shinobi sandals, blood red fingerless gloves, shinobi tape stretching from her sandals to just below her knees which was blocked by a pair of crimson colored shin guards, an emerald green belt that held a multitude of medical equipment, her long hair had been cut to shoulder length, the only thing that hadn't change was the placement of her headband. This wasn't the fangirl Hinata had come to know in the academy, this was a kunoichi who was growing up. "Promise you won't hurt him, he wears his emotions on his sleeve."

Sakura smiled sadly, "I won't intently hurt him, we've had our fights but that's how relationships work," she leans closer to the Hyuga heiress. "His make-up kisses and back rubs are divine by the way," This caused the pale eyed girl to eep and blush. "Now, I know it'll be hard to break out of a crush, I know more than anyone," the rosette said sadly. "It took me three weeks to really get over Sasuke; Naruto, my mom, and Hiryu-sensei really helped me get over that cold bastard," The pale eyed girl's eyes widened in shock at her walking companion. "Yep I said it, with my mouth," The rosette smirked, pointing at her lips, causing Hinata to giggle. "See, I'm so over the emo, it's not even funny. You'll get over Naruto eventually, I promise," The rosette leaned closer wrapping a friendly arm around the heiress. "I want to help you Hinata with your self-confidence, like Ino did with me, but not turn you into a fangirl like she did me."

The heiress gave the rosette a deadpanned expression, "Wasn't that your own choice?"

Sakura grumbled a bit, "Yes, and we will never speak of it again," The girl stated hearing another giggle from her female companion made the rosette feel a bit lighter. "So, what do you think of your loud mouth teammate?"

Hinata glanced at Kiba who was in turn conversing with both Naruto and Shino, or more alternating between cursing at Naruto and trying to goad Shino into another spar. When those failed, he would slap Naruto on the back and ask the blonde how his training was going. Admittedly, aside from his loud attitude, Kiba did strike her as a nice person when he wasn't trying to as his mother often stated be the alpha male of squad 8. "He's nice but…," Hinata trailed off.

"He can be annoying," Sakura finished earning a blush from the Hyuga heiress. "Welcome to how I was four months ago. Hana-sensei kind of helped open my eyes, her families blunt way of seeing things was a very refreshing way to look at relationships. I don't know if it will actually work on a member of that family; couldn't hurt to try. Maybe if you can use your gentle fist techniques to beat some sense into that granite skull of Kiba's it might help."

Hinata giggled slightly, the more Sakura talked, the less heartache she felt in regards to Naruto, clearly seeing the rosette had changed as much as Naruto did. Making silly jokes about herself that, before team placements, the pink haired girl would never make and anyone that did would end up beaten to a pulp for. "You are different than you were, I like the way you are now, Sakura."

"I'm glad, it took a lot of soul searching and a lot to change who I am, I'm Sakura Haruno, kunoichi and bad ass medic-nin, of squad 7, cha!" Sakura stated pumping her fist.

XXX

Hiryu chuckled while Kurenai gave a warm smile, glad to see the rosette haired girl was doing her best to cheer up Hinata, taking a surprising moral high ground. The red eyed woman was expecting the rosette to rub the fact that she won Naruto's heart in Hinata's face and tear down what little self-confidence the Hyuga heiress had. Instead, Sakura was going out of her way to make the shy girl feel better while not openly apologizing for something that didn't need an apology. Hinata never acted on her feelings and, while painful to see, had no real right to protest Sakura and Naruto's relationship. The red eyed woman smiled when Sakura offered to help Hinata get through not only the pain of losing her crush but build up her self-confidence. _Hinata needs a female friend her age, and Sakura certainly is getting livelier, I wonder if it has something to do with her relationship with Naruto._

"I'm very proud of that girl, she's growing in leaps and bounds, reminds me a lot of Kushina-sensei," Hiryu stated.

Kurenai raised an eyebrow, "I only met Kushina a few times, was she always that boisterous?"

"Imagine Naruto with Sakura's temper and you get Kushina-sensei. She loved life, Minato, and her team; never called us her students, always her kids," Hiryu smiled sadly looking at the ground. "When she found out she was pregnant with Naruto, she said, 'Hiryu, Hana, Itachi in nine months your all going to have a baby brother or sister, I just can't wait ya know!' She treated Minato-sama's team the same way, we were her family and no one could tell her different. I spent more time at her home then I ever did in my apartment."

"When did it hit you that she was truly gone?" Kurenai asked.

"The day after, when she hadn't practically hammer my door down asking why I wasn't home for breakfast," The plain looking jonin stated, wiping a few tears away. "Every morning she do that, 'Hiryu Himura, get your ass home and eat your breakfast before I make you, Itachi, and Hana-chan do fifty laps around the village, move now, ya know!' it was like my apartment was just a place to sleep."

Kurenai nodded, "Sounded like Lady Kushina was a wonderful person, shame I didn't get to know her more."

"Itachi took it the hardest, though he never showed it, the woman always went out of her way and did the craziest things to get him to laugh. When he did, she would always hug him and declare, 'That's my Itachi-kun,' considering he was her godson I understood the extra attention," Hiryu smiled winsomely.

Kurenai frowned slightly, "Yakumo," The woman whispered sadly thinking of her own prodigy.

"We'll help her Kurenai, I promise, and make her into a kunoichi you can be very proud of," Hiryu stated as the group came up a hill to see a rather imposing structure with an eerie almost dark atmosphere surrounding the structure. Hiryu's senses were going haywire from the amount of chakra in the air, "Oh yeah, this is going to be fun," he stated dryly.

Author's Note: So ends another chapter again fairly short but it's easier to edit. I felt the interaction with Sakura and Hinata had to be true to their core natures; many overlook Sakura's nature early on because of the rampant fangirlism in the original series. But before meeting Ino, Sakura and Hinata were scary alike both timid and shy, it was Ino that help Sakura break out of her shell. As such I think if there was anyone in the series that could relate to Hinata it would be Sakura. Yet the Naruto/Hinata fans ignore this fact or choose to ignore this fact so they can bash her because all they see is her physical assaults on Naruto. Granted some are not really justified and I think Kishimoto puts it in their just for comedic value, but the majority of the time Naruto does deserve correction for being either an unintentional pervert, a moron, or reckless. Aside from the corrections and comedy Sakura has shown she is slowly starting to care about him. Not as fast as many would like I mean the war is over in the manga and the only indication they are getting closer is Naruto stating that they kind of are boyfriend and girlfriend, with Sakura bashing him in the head but not retracting his statement like she's saying, 'don't announce it to the world you moron.'


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

The first building on the compound was a small clinic called Saimato Hill. It was a long two story building with an observation deck that face the Hidden Leaf village. It was quaint, if the oppressive feeling of malicious chakra hadn't screwed it up. Squad seven and eight looked at the building and Akamaru whimpered slightly. "Glad we came here, feels like the seal is already weakening, a month to a year and well, we would have had a very angry demonic entity to deal with," Hiryu stated softly as he began walking into the building.

"Sensei?" Naruto blinked in confusion as he ran up to match strides with the plain looking shinobi. "What do you mean?"

The others all followed, Kurenai being the last. Looking at the building, her face filled with intense regret. _I failed her. Yakumo, I'm sorry I wasn't a better sensei_. She eventually caught up the group, wondering how much Hiryu knew.

"The old Hokage was asked by the current Kurama clan head, Unkai I believe," glancing over his shoulder looking at Kurenai who nodded. "To help them with a situation in regards with their heiress who began to manifest remarkable abilities in Genjutsu to the point it was openly declared a kekkei genkai. The reason it is considered a kekkei genkai is because Yakumo's genjutsu can actually kill a person, because the illusions are so real to the person caught in it. If the images were lethal enough the person would die for real and not simply rendered unconscious."

"You're serious? This girl you're going to recruit has the ability to kill with Genjutsu," Kiba looked stunned he's been with Kurenai for four months and he knew how strong her genjutsu's were, if it wasn't for his sense of smell, or Akamaru's, he would never able notice he was in an illusion right off the bat.

"I wasn't finished, now as for the reason of her abilities, my guess would be something very similar to Naruto," Hiryu stated.

The whisker marked blonde looked down clutching his stomach, then saw a pale hand reach out taking that hand. Looking up he saw Sakura smile at him encouragingly, "In what way sensei?"

"In a way I can't divulge to squad 8 as it's a classified S-class secret only the Hokage and Naruto himself can say anything about," The plain faced shinobi replied, getting Sakura's nod.

"Was Kurenai-sensei involved?" Shino asked is his usual stoic voice.

Hiryu smirked looking over his shoulder, "Before she became your sensei she was Yakumo's, but when the girl's kekkei genkai began to get stronger, putting more people at risk, the Third Hokage came to a decision he has been regretting, seal the girl's kekkei genkai and keep her locked up here."

"T-Then why r-recruit her, Hiryu-sensei?" Hinata asked.

"I'm too soft," The plain faced jonin said softly, getting everyone to raise an eyebrow, minus Naruto who just looked confused. "I blame Kushina-sensei; she always believed that if anyone is in pain of any kind you're supposed to help them. Yakumo wanted to be a kunoichi and wanted to be as proficient in her discipline of Genjutsu as Rock Lee of Squad 9 is in taijutsu," He saw Kurenai slump her shoulders and he winced. "Sorry, Kurenai."

"No you are correct and I am not the sensei Guy is," Kurenai stated.

"Nor am I, but Kurenai, look what you have done with your current squad," The plain looking shinobi replied. The red eyed woman looked up at her students. "Each sensei has a different way to teach and sometimes a student we are teaching needs a little more work than others," He groaned softly. "Just made myself out to be a hypocrite."

"Sasuke is different Hiryu, he never listened to anything you were trying to teach," Kurenai stated and winced. "Yakumo loved to learn and it was because of fear that I wasn't able to teach her, but it did not mean I didn't care for her."

The plain faced jonin nodded taking a deep breath, "We are human and we make mistakes, that is why I asked you to come Kurenai. I want your help, not only to release the seal you placed on her, but to heal her," He pointed to his temple and then to his chest, "Here and here." The red eyed woman nodded as the group came to a door.

XXX

Upon entering, everyone noted the room was dark with only a single candle placed next to a chair. In the chair facing away from them was a girl with long light brown hair. They couldn't see much else except maybe the long light pink robe the girl was wearing. The girl turned to see who had entered her room, her expression was blank until she saw Kurenai. "Sensei," The girl's eyes welled up with tears and she leapt out of her chair running to the red eyed woman and the hugging the woman's waist.

"Kurenai, have your say, then we'll get to unsealing the seal," The voice drew the girl's face away from Kurenai's stomach to look up at the plain faced man standing next to her former sensei. "Howdy there," The man smiled.

"Who are you?" The girl asked.

"Best wait until after Kurenai finishes chatting with you, I'll make a full introduction later," He then walked behind three of the five kids her age and bumped them forward. "Same with you three squirts, your sensei is going to need emotional support with this and it is your duty as her students to provide it," The plain faced man stated earning a scowl from the wild looking boy a second before he turned sheepish watching her, the Hyuga nodded giving her a weak smile, and the stoic taller boy simply adjusting his sunglasses. "Naruto, Sakura let's go, it's going to take them awhile, let's go find a kitchen," The man stated, the blonde boy's eyes seemed to glow with anticipation. "Sakura, will you please collect your ramen junky boyfriend." The trio left the room, closing the door.

"Gladly, sensei," A second later Yakumo heard a light meaty smack.

"Ow, Sakura-chan," Came a whine.

Yakumo couldn't help it, she giggled finding it funny. She turned looking at a sad, smiling Kurenai and focused on the woman. "Sensei?"

The woman shook her head, "I haven't been a very good sensei to you Yakumo, and I am sorry. If you feel the need to vent, please do. I also have to reveal something that may be very painful for you to hear."

Yakumo frowned softly, "Is this about why you sealed my power up and why you were talking to the Hokage on the roof of the tower?"

The red eyed woman winced while her other students looked at her in confusion but she nodded, "What I'm about to tell you is the truth…"

XXX

Naruto was currently eating a ration bar and hating it, the things were dry and grainy having no taste whatsoever. They hadn't really strayed too far from the room that currently held the newest member of their squad and squad 8. "Yakumo seems like a nice person, but you said she's demonically possessed, what happened?" Sakura asked.

"A year ago Yakumo's full powers were manifested and she killed her parents using a genjutsu fueled by those powers. Inside her mind is an Id Demon created by her subconscious," Hiryu explained.

"Um, sensei will we be able to help Yakumo-chan?" Naruto asked.

"The only thing we can do is try and be supportive," the plain faced jonin responded then smacked his forehead. "Guh, forgot something," The man stated, then began reaching for the pocket's on his flak jacket before he stopped thinking a moment, a smiled appearing on his face, "But it can wait."

Sakura leaned in to Naruto, "He's thinking out loud again, sensei can be very strange at times," she whispered. Naruto snickered with a shrug before gently pulling Sakura into a hug. The girl sighed in contentment, getting an overwhelming feeling of safety and warmth again. These moments cemented the fact that she made the right choice. Naruto was hers and she now understood what that meant relishing in it.

Hiryu smirked when he heard the sigh, _Sakura getting her daily dose of Naruto, warning side-effects may include a large smile, intense kissing, and acting idiotic at times, use only as directed to by your heart_. He turned to see the door to Yakumo's room open and Kiba stepping out waving them in.

XXX

A few seconds later everyone was gathered around the small framed girl who was still trying to get over the huge weight that she inadvertently caused her parent's deaths. Both parents, while cruel in application, wanted what was best for their daughter and forced her to become something too far and too fast. Hiryu knelt into a catcher's crouch in front of the girl, gently reaching up and patting her shoulder. "I can't imagine how you feel at this moment Yakumo, no child ever wants to see their parents die. Mine died when I was very young, in the last war. What happened to you, however, had been a very tragic and painful accident. But I wish to give you hope," the girl looked up, her eyes still had tears falling, "Yakumo, I would like you to become a member of squad seven and achieve your dream as a kunoichi who wishes to focus her discipline on Genjutsu," Hiryu saw the girl's eyes widen in surprise. "Now, it will not be an easy road and you must pass a single test before I can begin training you. When you pass that test, it will be official."

"Don't you mean try?" Yakumo asked.

The plain faced jonin shook his head, "No, I mean when. If indicates you will try and that constitutes the possibility you might fail. I am a do, or do not, kind of person, trying is for people like Kiba."

"Hey!" Kiba shouted getting everyone to look at him as he started grumbling, his face red from embarrassment. "Idiot brother-in-laws and their stupid jabs," he muttered hearing Akamaru bark. "He does not have a point and who's side are you on!?"

Yakumo giggled slightly looking up at the plain face jonin, her face lined with fear and nerves, "What do I need to do sensei?"

Hiryu sighed, looking around the room as if measuring it, picking up the chair from earlier, he placed it in the center of the room. "Sit and relax for now," He turned to the five genin, "Hinata and Sakura stay, you boys will need to leave."

"Um, what for, sensei?" Naruto asked.

"The seal needed to undo the one currently on Yakumo needs to be placed on her body and we don't need three adolescent gawking at her naked," All the boys, even Shino, blushed before quickly walking out the door. Hiryu sighed, shaking his head before pulling out a large ink bottle.

"Sensei, why can't you have Kurenai do this?" Sakura asked trying to preserve Yakumo's modesty.

"While I'm proficient in seals Sakura, your sensei was taught by a master in them. If any can do this right and help Yakumo, Hiryu can," Kurenai explained.

"Thank you Sakura, for being considerate and I'm sure Yakumo appreciates it as well," Hiryu said gently pulling the robe on Yakumo's shoulders and began applying sealing ink, seeing the light brown haired girl nod and a heavy blush on the girl's cheeks. "Yakumo, the moment the seal is gone your powers will manifest very quickly and the Id Demon will come out with a vengeance. But you must remember, it is nothing more than a manifestation of your subconscious, it will not harm you. You must control it as you would any other jutsu, understand?"

"H-Hai, sensei," the brown haired girl said softly.

"That's my girl," The plain faced jonin smiled warmly, earning another blush. Hiryu finished the release seal a few minutes later putting the ink away then moved into a series of handsigns, "Here we go, Hinata would you please?"

"Byakugan!" The Hyuga heiress activated her kekkei genkai and watched as Hiryu put his left hand on the release seal. She watched the chakra and seal lines quickly form around the older seal before it pulsed and the both seals vanished. Then a new, darker chakra manifested rising from Yakumo's head then it vanishes. "Oh no, it's gone."

Hiryu curse looking around, "Hmm, that the thing is quick, we're already in a genjutsu."

Sakura was looking around, her heighten senses on alert trying to figure what changed, she didn't see an arm slowly phase in behind her.

Author's Note: I wanted to end this on a rather unique cliff hanger, having watched the entire Kurama clan arc albeit through English sub on hulu I was able to get a feel for Yakumo's personality and I hope it came off here in the chapter, it might change as she bonds with her team. It was also in this filler arc that showed both Hinata and Sakura reacting to Naruto many times but it also shows Naruto isn't entirely dumb he's the one who actually decided to investigate everything himself trying to help his friends get their sensei back, and overall he actually did a fairly decent job of it, the only reason he couldn't do more is because he sucks at genjutsu. Many have argued that filler arcs are just that fillers and while true it also helps develop character most of the character development after the Sasuke retrieval arc came from these fillers which I think lasted two full seasons, with Naruto teaming up with team 8, 10, and Team Guy on multiple occasions not mention fleshing out character's like Anko who were mentioned and scene briefly it's these filler that actually helps you care about the characters when it moved into Shippuden and many of them started getting killed off, like Asuma, Neji, Jiraiya, and I think Anko as well. Its also through these fillers that Naruto and Hinata have actually interact more without them Hinata has only interacted with Naruto three times during the course of the original series, so Naruto/Hinata fans should shut up bout these fillers not being needed because without them you guys are even more delusional than the Sasuke/Sakura fans.


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12

Naruto sighed looking bored, he really wanted to get this whole thing done and over with so he could begin training with his new teammate. She was already eons better than Sasuke, one she wasn't rubbing it in his face that she's better than him, granted they barely knew each other but that was a plus he could start fresh and make a new friend. He just hoped he could make that friendship without coming off as a complete moron. _Sakura-chan does try to help it's just that there are a lot of things I still don't get, man, it's so frustrating_, the whisker marked blonde grabbed at his hair grumbling and started yanking it.

Both Shino and Kiba watched this with the stoic adjusting his glasses, "What's his problem?" Kiba asked.

"His sensei and teammate are inside trying to help his new teammate while he stands out here with us, logic dictates he wishes to render aide to his comrades of some kind," Shino explained. "However is unable to grasp how he can, hence he is yanking out his hair in frustration."

The wild looking boy glances at his teammate, "Everything comes down to logic with you doesn't it." He was about to reply with more when all of them heard a loud feminine scream. Before either could react Naruto ran to the door

"Sakura!" Naruto shouted throwing open the door and running inside, the two boys tried to grab him but the door slammed shut in front of them.

XXX

What Naruto saw when entering were his sensei, Hinata, and Kurenai pinned against a wall, Yakumo clutching her head and Sakura in a pool of blood with a demonic looking creature standing over her. The creature leapt away as the blonde ran forward and dropped to his knees to scoop the rosette haired girl into his arms. "S-Sakura-chan?" he whispered sadly.

XXX

Hiryu sighed heavily the genjutsu was multi-layered apparently and the one previous had come crashing down when Naruto entered the room. Whatever Naruto was seeing though must have been horrible. "Well shit," The plain faced jonin muttered as he felt a malicious surge of demonic chakra he knew all too well.

"Is that the Kyuubi?" Kurenai asked in a frighten whisper looking over at Sakura who narrowly missed getting impaled by the Id thanks to Hinata.

"Yakumo, you have to gain control and fast," Hiryu stated seeing Naruto posture start turning ridged and steam began to emanate from the floor around him. "What did that thing show him?"

Yakumo, who was trying her hardest to gain control, had seen the image, "He's seeing Sakura dead, the three of you pinned," She clutched at her head again, "I want to help him, he's in such pain."

"This is a battle Yakumo, treat it as such," came the plain faced jonin's reply. The girl nodded picking up a painting trowel and brandishing it in a reverse grip staring grimly at the Id demon who began hovering over the jinchuuriki, waiting for its opportunity to strike, not sensing the rage it had unleashed.

XXX

Naruto gently cradled his girlfriend's head, "Why did you take her," he said to no one feeling both flaming rage and numbing cold sadness staring down at the one person that made his life, in recent months, worth living for taken away from him by some girl's imagination. "I a**m going to **_**KILL YOU**__!_" The Id demon leapt back, not expecting the huge column of menacing chakra. **"**_**You took the one precious person that meant EVERYTHING TO ME!**_**" **The blonde's eyes turned red and slitted, his strange whisker marks became darker and more defined, as tears of rage and sadness fell. The boy's body became engulfed in a red bubbling cloak as the boy dropped to all fours in the manner of a giant animal over the motionless body, glaring coldly at the Id demon. A tail and ears began to form in the strange cloak

"_I'm merely a manifestation of a demon, before me lies the real thing_," Id whispered jumping away, before it could get too far, Naruto was suddenly in front of it and with a clawed back hand the demon went sailing crashing into a wall. Yakumo appeared just as Naruto charged clawed hand ready to strike.

"Naruto, you are in a genjutsu, Sakura-san is still alive," The brown haired girl stated gently the anger boy growling at her, for a second but his eyes wide. "Please you must calm down," The boy had already started to calm the moment she mention genjutsu and the fact that Sakura was safe. Yakumo turned, and before the Id demon could react, plunged her trowel into the creatures head. The mask it was wearing split down the middle falling away, there was a brief glimpse of Yakumo's face surrounded in a bright purple light before the whole being exploded in a flash of light.

XXX

The other's watched quickly as Naruto changed back to normal as the genjutsu lifted. He slumped to his knees, gasping for air. Before he could react, he saw a shadow enter his vision looking up, Sakura was standing over him showing deep concern, reaching up he pulled the rosette down into a tight hug which she returned, "Shh, Naruto I'm safe," She whispered kissing his forehead.

A few seconds later Shino and Kiba ran into the room, what they saw was confusing, at least to Kiba. Yakumo sitting in her chair quickly covering herself with her robes, Hinata looking even more paler than normal, Kurenai looked like she had run a marathon, Hiryu was staring quietly at his two students who were clinging to each other as if they were drowning. "What happened, what was that chakra?"

"Officially it was the Id demon," Hiryu stated.

"And unofficially?" Shino asked softly.

Hiryu sighed heavily, "Something you'll need to ask Naruto about at a much later date, he just witness something that nearly broke him and he needs time."

"But," Kiba feeling both confused and helpless, he and Naruto had gotten a lot closer with the whisker marked blonde hanging out more at the Inuzuka compound, both because he was dating Sakura and he would help out while she worked at the veterinarian clinic on the weekends it helped that Kiba's mother practically encouraged the blonde to show up even when Sakura wasn't working.

"Kiba!" Hiryu's voice became firm in the 'I'm an S-class Jonin' voice.

With a sigh Kiba started scratching behind Akamaru's ears, something he did when he felt confused and useless, which wasn't often. Shino simply took in the scene with his normal detached reasoning. _An S-class secret only the Hokage and Naruto can divulge, malicious chakra, Naruto's birth is on the 10__th__ of October same day as the Kyuubi attack. Logically it stands to reason that Naruto is a jinchuuriki. What motivated Naruto to enter a state that would weaken whatever seal upon his person, answer a genjutsu cast by the Id demon showed Sakura's death, this conclusion is dictated by the immense relief in Naruto's body language upon seeing her alive. Final analyses I'm glad, he is not permanently harmed._

XXX

Naruto took several deep breaths trying to calm himself down, taking in Sakura's heavenly scent and feeling her arms gently running along his back, shoulder blades, and lower back. He immediately planned to take her out to dinner to a new sushi bar he discovered a few weeks ago near the ANBU housing area. He first went in to see if they'll let him eat there, apparently the owner had been a classmate of his mother's and stated he was welcome anytime. As soon as this whole mission was done he was bound and determined now to take her there. He gently and reluctantly pulled himself away from Sakura's embrace, looking into her eyes, "I'm alright now, Sakura-chan," He whispered kissing her cheek, slowly standing and helping her up.

Hiryu took a deep breath gently ruffling Naruto's hair, not saying anything, turning to Yakumo and smirked slightly, "Yakumo, how would like to wear my flak jacket for a few minutes?"

Yakumo's eyes widen, "R-Really sensei?"

"Yeah why the heck not, little modeling never hurt nobody," The plain faced jonin smiled, taking off the jacket and letting the girl slide her arms through the holes, kneeling down to see her smile while looking at the jacket, "Well don't you look cute," Hiryu chuckled at the girl. The jonin began opening several of the pockets and pulled out storage scrolls, placing them on a table, glancing over to see Naruto with one lingering arm around Sakura. "Naruto," The blonde blinked in confusion as he and Sakura walked over to the table. A few seconds later squad 8 joined them looking at the scrolls.

"W-What's in the storage scrolls, Hiryu-sensei?" Hinata asked.

"More storage scrolls, but inside of them is Naruto's birth right as one of the surviving members of the Uzumaki clan," the plain faced jonin stated.

"I-I had a clan?" Naruto asked looking shocked and awe.

The plain faced jonin nodded, "Not just any clan, but one of the three clans that founded the Hidden Leaf," He glanced at everyone gathered, and all but Kurenai looked shocked.

"Wait, you're saying that not only did Naruto have a clan, but it helped found our village, there's no way!" Kiba growled.

Hiryu shook his head and sighed glancing at Kiba, "It's the truth, Hashirama Senju married Mito Uzumaki shortly after he, Madara Uchiha, and Mito's brother, Saito Uzumaki, established the land to which the village now sits. Every Jonin and Chunin in this village also honors that union every time we put on our flak jackets," He gently reached down and patted the red swirl on his flak jacket that Yakumo was currently wearing.

"What happen to them then?" Sakura asked, squeezing Naruto's hand seeing the question in his eyes.

"Except for five, every single Uzumaki is dead, which is another reason why we honor them here in the leaf by wearing their Clan crest on our flak jackets," Hiryu turned to Naruto, handing him all six scrolls, "These are yours Naruto, inside each of these scrolls contain a hundred more storage scrolls, inside those contain thousands upon thousands of scrolls. Anything from introductions, to sealing, to being able to create elemental kekkei genkai. Use them well."

Naruto gently picked up each scroll then looked up at his sensei, a small teary smile on his face, "Thank you, sensei."

Hiryu shook his head, "I am not the one to be thanked. I'm merely the one who was sent to find them. Your mother is the one you should be thanking. She wanted to raise you to know everything about your clan."

Shino decided to speak up, "Hiryu-sensei you spoke earlier of their being five Uzumaki clan members still existing, if Naruto is one of the five, then where are the other four?"

Hiryu smirked, "Picked up on that, did you Shino? Yes, there are four other members still alive, and three are directly related to Naruto. The other one, while not directly related, is still an Uzumaki through her grandmother's blood."

"R-Really, sensei?" Naruto asked his heart speeding up.

The plain faced jonin nodded, gently taking the flak jacket off Yakumo, who pouted, as he put it back on himself, "The problem is that I don't know where any of them are at the moment. One was born in the Grass country, one was born not far from the Water country, and the last has dropped off the face of the earth with the last records placing him in the Rain country during a rebellion."

"What about the last one?" Sakura asked.

Hiryu sighed shaking his head, "Probably in some gambling hall getting drunk off her ass on sake and losing badly at any game she came across."

The red eyed woman raised an eyebrow, "You know, if she caught you saying that, she'd turn you into paste."

"Only if she caught me," The plain faced jonin smirked. "But neither here nor there, the pervert is getting his spy network on finding Naruto's lost clan mates. As much as I hate to admit it, Jiraiya is good at his job. So we'll just need to trust him in finding them," The whisker marked blonde nodded, still clutching the scrolls, his face looking surprisingly thoughtful after all the bombs that had been dropped on him at once. _And I have one more big one to drop, I just hope he'll be able to handle it. It's not every day you find out your father was the one that made your life hell, even unintentionally._

Author's Note: Naruto's reaction in the opening scenes of this were a more tame than I believe he would do, I mean if Sakura had been the one that had been put in the death like state in the canon instead of Sasuke during the Land of Waves arc I guarantee we would have seen the Eight tailed form of Kurama emerge or worse Naruto just not give a fuck anymore and let Kurama have at it. It has already been shown Naruto would give his life and even his own happiness for Sakura he has shown it over and over again, but luckily aside from the Sand/sound invasion arc and a few of the fillers Sakura has never been put in major danger during the original part of the series. It's only during Shippuden where she's put in direct danger but manages to fight out of it. It's through these moments that I believe that Sakura does know Naruto loves her and believes she doesn't deserve it. If there is going to be a third part to the series this issue will probably come up more as Naruto gets closer to his dream. Now here's the voice I would put for Hiryu in the English dub of Naruto, Travis Willingham guy who plays Roy Mustang in Full Metal Alchemist just kind of strikes me as perfect for Hiryu's personality.


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13

Squad 7 and squad 8 stood at a crossroads, one leading back to the training grounds and the other leading into the village. Kurenai decided to lead her group back to the training grounds to finish with team exercises for the day, while Hiryu wanted to drop the mother of all bombshells on Naruto and decided to butter him up with ramen before the splash damage could be felt. The group parted with waves, Sakura promising to drag Hinata away for shopping sometime that week, Yakumo simply asked if she could join which Sakura gladly accepted. _Nothing says female bonding like wasting good ryo on clothing they'll never wear more than once_, the plain faced jonin mentally quipped while keeping a straight face. "Kiba, make sure to last longer than two minutes this time," he shouted.

He heard a low growl, "Up yours, why my sister ever accepted your marriage proposal is beyond me!" Came the reply. Hiryu heard a distinct set of yips from Akamaru, "How do you know stuff like that?!"

The plain faced jonin gave Kurenai a jaunty two fingered salute before walking his group into the village. Naruto was unusually quiet the whole way; his shoulders slumped like the whole world suddenly placed itself squarely on those shoulders. The only thing that seemed to keep his spirits up was his girlfriend trying her hardest to be there for him, looping her arm around his, leaning into him. Hiryu had to admit he got way too much too fast. _This could break him, finding out about his clan, having four members of said clan scattered to the winds and the worse what happened up there while he was under that genjutsu. But he needs to know, sensei give your son your strength for what I'm about to tell him. Where ever you are, he will need you during this time._

XXX

Lunch, while normally a joyous time, had been rather subdued with Naruto eating quietly and only having five bowls before stopping. "Naruto, I'm here, please tell me what's wrong?" Sakura asked softly cradling his face in her hands.

"I-I can't get that stupid genjutsu out of my head," the whisker marked blonde said softly.

"I'm sorry Naruto-san, itself my fault," Yakumo stated softly.

Naruto's eyes flashed a second wanting to latch on to blaming her for it, but his eyes soften, shaking his head, "No, it's mine I-I knew I sucked at genjutsu and I jumped right in anyway."

Hiryu smiled ruffling the boy's head, "You wanted to protect your girlfriend, the majority of guys in the world would have agreed with your actions. However, Naruto, sometimes you must trust in the people around you, you must also trust in Sakura's own abilities, she has come a long way in four months."

"I know it's just, I heard her scream and everything you taught me went right out the window," Naruto made a long sweeping gesture before taking a deep breath and letting it out.

The plain faced jonin chuckled, "Hana calls it the 'alpha male protecting his mate syndrome', I've been guilty of it too, Naruto, so don't feel bad. When you screw up, admit it. Then have your mate shower you with kisses, in private, promise never to do it until the next time the syndrome kicks in."

Both Naruto and Sakura blush, causing the Kurama girl to giggle, Hiryu shook his head, slowly seeing Naruto slowly start to cheer up, "So sensei is that old fart of a godfather of mine really looking for other Uzumaki's?"

"Yep, you have two cousins, an uncle, and a second cousin, but the only one we can find at present is the second cousin," Hiryu replied.

"Um, what do you mean we, sensei?" Sakura asked.

"What the wind bag is trying to tell you is, you'll be accompanying me to find my old teammate," A deeper voice stated coming into the ramen shop. Standing between Naruto and Sakura was a man at least a head taller than Hiryu, with long white spikey hair, a harden metal plate with the word oil stamped on it, wearing an olive green outfit and a red vest, and tied to his back was a large scroll, painted on his face two long red lines .

"Wouldn't stand there if I was you, pervert," The plain faced jonin smirked; Jiraiya looked at the young man in confusion, missing the simultaneous nods coming from the rosette and the blonde. Before Jiraiya could react, he felt massive pain and every male in the area, minus Hiryu, winced in sympathy.

Jiraiya dropped to ground curling into a ball crying and trying to drive away the huge amount of pain to his junk. He glanced up through painful tears at the whisker marked blonde who glared down at him. "Yep, I deserved that," He squeaked.

Yakumo looked at her teammates in confusion, "They made a pact, Yakumo, before you joined us, to give Lord Jiraiya the warm welcome you just saw. Must admit, they held back, I'm surprised you can still talk, you old perv."

"I'm going to be pissing…blood for a…week and…you think…they held back," Jiraiya gasped, wishing he had asked Tsunade to teach him how to learn medical jutsu, this had been fifth time in his life his nads had been violated, granted the first four times of course had been from Tsunade herself, but still.

"They could have shattered your pelvis," Hiryu stated in almost sing song like voice. "Do you want Ayame to get you some ice?" He glance up at the female chef, the look in her eyes and crossed arms seemed to indicate she would need a lot of convincing. "After a lot of apologizing to Naruto, of course."

The toad sage tried to sit up only for a new wave of pain to hit, forcing the man to crawl back into a ball, "Dear kami, I'm dying."

After a few minutes watching the myriad of expressions on the toad sage's face Naruto couldn't take it anymore he started laughing.

XXX

Eventually the toad sage was coherent enough to sincerely apologize to his godson for the years of neglect which rewarded him with an ice pack. The rest of the time Jiraiya spent preparing squad 7 for their mission, finally Hiryu decided it was time to drop the big bomb, "Naruto, I think you're ready to learn who your father was," The plain faced jonin said looking grim. "I can guarantee you'll be both ecstatic and angry at the same time."

"What do you mean, sensei?" Naruto asked feeling Sakura squeezing his hand he looked over and saw her face was just as grim. "Was he bad or something?"

"No, but when I see your nose and your chin, I see Kushina-sensei, however, when I look at your hair and your eyes see your father, Minato Namikaze," Hiryu stated softly.

Naruto looked down at one of the empty bowls for a minute, "The fourth Hokage was my dad," he said softly not seeing Yakumo's wide eyes. "You know I always wanted to be his son ever since I was little, b-but why did he seal the fox into my gut?!"

"No one knows," Jiraiya states sadly, "The only two who could tell us died right next to you. I'm sorry again; Naruto I wasn't there for you when I should have been."

The plain faced jonin took a deep breath glancing at Yakumo who became confused the mentioning of a fox, "Well, since Naruto spoke up about it I can now be allowed to bring our little Yakumo up to speed on Naruto's condition," With that he went on to explain Naruto's status as a jinchuuriki and the mysterious circumstances behind it, when he finished, Yakumo simply hugged the whisker marked blonde not in sympathy but as a comrade. Hiryu sat there and pursed his lips, "I've spent the last thirteen years asking myself this question, why would Kushina-sensei allow the sealing to take place at all, why not simply take the fox into her and when she died the fox would have died as well."

"Wait, what are talking about sensei?" Sakura asked.

"Naruto isn't the first Kyuubi jinchuuriki, Sakura, he is in fact the third one," The plain face jonin explained sipping some tea, "The first was Mito Uzumaki and the second was Kushina-sensei. Everything about that night was complicated, but Naruto, your father would never make your life terrible intentionally, and I believe he sealed the fox inside you for a reason," Everyone sat in silence each thinking their own thoughts.

Naruto slammed his fists onto the counter his eyes becoming lit with fiery determination, "Well if dad had that much faith in me, then I'll learn everything I can and make them both proud of me, believe it!"

"Well, then let's start by knocking some sense into that wayward cousin of yours and dragging her drunk ass home where she belongs, if she has a problem with that we can blame it on the pervert," The plain faced jonin exclaimed.

"Hey, stop calling me that!" Jiraiya shouted.

"Only when you stop peeping in the woman's bath house," Hiryu shouted back.

"Never!" Jiraiya sneered.

Naruto leaned in whispering into Yakumo's ear who nodded going through six hands signs, "Anti-Pervert Illusion: Virtuous Manly Jutsu! (1)" Caught off guard by the genjutsu, Jiraiya started screaming like a girl.

Hiryu raised an eyebrow; "Picked that one up from Kurenai?" He asked, getting a nod from the brown haired girl. "I'm impressed, well, while we wait for the pervert to come back to himself, I'll outline what I have planned for Yakumo's training and integration into the team," The plain face jonin went into sensei mode. "First, while Tsunade can fix up your weak constitution, Yakumo, you won't be able to do things overnight and I really want this team to get into the Chunin exams. So, we will fix your taijutsu, chakra capacity, and control now; then work on your stamina after the first two rounds are over. That way I can hand you all off to your specialists for more in-depth training.

"Understood, sensei," Yakumo, Naruto, and Sakura stated in unison.

"Great, now I already have a couple of taijutsu styles in mind. I also would like to ask you, Naruto, if I can borrow a couple of Genjutsu scrolls from your new library, so Yakumo can use them." Hiryu asked.

Naruto smiled, "Sure sensei, I'd be glad to give Yakumo-chan some, not like I'm going to be able to use them." Yakumo blushed lightly.

Hiryu nods, "Well the rest of the day is yours; I need to take Yakumo up to meet the hokage and get her a place to live inside the village. Then I'm going to meet my fiancée for some quality time before she comes looking for me."

XXX

Naruto and Sakura left the ramen shop, they didn't go more than a block before Naruto grabbed Sakura's hand, docking into an ally, pinning her against a wall and began kissing her deeply, which she returned with equally as much passion, until both parted breathlessly looking into each other's eyes. "Scared you didn't it?" She asked. "And you didn't have to wait until we were alone you know, everyone knows we're an item now."

The whisker marked blonde smirked, "Would of driven Kiba crazy that's for sure," His eyes closed leaning into Sakura's shoulder sighing.

"Not as easy to get over as you thought?" The rosette haired girl whispered, she felt him nod. "I'm here, I promise I won't die and I'll train twice as hard to make sure of that, we're a team."

"I love you, Sakura-chan," He whispered after he pulled back to look into her eyes again.

Sakura felt her heart skip, leaning in, the two began kissing deeply again, "I love you too, Naruto."

Leaving the alley, the two walked her back home where he stopped at her family front door, Sakura looked back at him in confusion, "What?"

"I got someplace special to take you tonight, so please put on your favorite kimono," The blonde boy smiled. She nodded, blinking in confusion as he gives her a kiss before leaving, wondering what he was up to.

Mebuki opened the door, noting her daughter's lips were swollen, causing the older woman to raise an eyebrow, "I better not become a grandmother before you turn sixteen, young lady."

The rosette haired girl blushed heavily, "Mom, how can you say that!?"

"Meh, the way you're going, I expect to have a son-in-law after the Chunin exams," The woman giggled watching her daughter turn darker red. "Like the thought hasn't crossed your mind. Here's a word of advice Kushina-chan once gave me when I was having trouble deciding on whether or not to marry your father."

"What?" Sakura asked genuinely interested, though, felt strange hearing her mother talk to her about marriage when she was thirteen.

"Life is short, doubly so if you're a shinobi so you eat all you can, play hard, and love even harder because you never know when it'll be over, so snag that man of yours, ya know!" Mebuki recited Kushina's words word for word.

"Ya know?" Sakura raising an eyebrow.

The woman sighed, shaking her head, looking down at her daughter, "Verbal tick of hers when she got excited, and she was always excited," The older Haruno chuckled sadly.

With a nod the rosette haired girl then raised an eyebrow, "Still, you are still encouraging me to get engaged at thirteen mom, and just implied Naruto and I are having sex!?"

Mebuki smiled, "I'm just nudging the first idea, and sending a subtle warning at the prospect of the second."

"Why are you encouraging marriage?" The rosette asked trying to keep a blush off her cheeks.

"Sakura honey please it's not encouraging something, if it's not pushing you in a direction you don't already see yourself going into, am I wrong?" Mebuki asked, arms crossed, looking down at her daughter who was staring at the ground shuffling her feet. "It's not unusual in a hidden village for two shinobi to be engaged young, look at your sensei, he and Hana have been engaged a six full years in two months. They've only recently decided on a date to actually marry."

This caught Sakura's attention, _That places their engagement a few months before the Uchiha Massacre. _The girl sighed looking up at her mom, "You're not going to let this go, are you?" she asked dryly.

"Now sweetie, what self-respecting mother would I be if I did that?" Mebuki asked with a smile.

"A less troublesome one," Sakura stated before stiffening at what she said. Sleeping under a tree at training ground, Shikamaru sneezed waking him up. Looking around, the lazy boy simply shrugged going back to sleep.

Author's Note: Moving forward in the story and adding another I guess observation about the series, that many overlook or choose to overlook, the Rookie 12 as a whole are shinobi. In the eyes of their village are considered adults, they can drink, smoke, and have sex if they were so inclined as it is their right as adults, so the people who argue they are young teenagers I refer to the first part of this sentence and state again they are considered adults.

Anti-Pervert Illusion: Virtuous Manly Jutsu – The illusion created is Might Guy surrounding the target dressed in a speedo and doing the nice guy pose while giving Rock Lee also dressed in speedo a manly hug.


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14

Dark. That was what Sakura was seeing currently, mostly because her boyfriend wanted to surprise her with something. She willingly let him blindfold her and lead her through what she felt like was half the village before he stopped. "Ah, Mr. Uzumaki, your table is ready," Came a rather high end, almost snooty voice with good humor added, this usually meant the person was messing around, and hearing Naruto's chuckle she had been right. Her whisker marked boyfriend led her through a series of small turns where she incidentally brushed up against a few cloth covered tables. She blinked under the blindfold, cloth covered tables meant a restaurant and a high end one at that. Eventually she came to a stop and heard Naruto pull out a chair, leading her to sit down which was made a bit difficult because of the kimono she wore.

"Okay Sakura-chan, you can take off the blindfold," Came her boyfriend's voice which she did. Having expected a glare, she was surprised with the dim lighting. Looking around did confirm that they were indeed in a restaurant; the dining area was dimly lit with each table given a single candle to provide the illumination. She could see several couples at tables enjoying meals of varying types; the most prominent was sushi, her eyes lit at the prospect.

But something nagged at her, she looked over at Naruto who seemed pleased with himself, granted he should be, he got his Sakura in a highly romantic setting with the prospect of eating her favorite cuisine. The rosette, however, looked around the room again trying to picture why the restaurant was so familiar and why she felt so out of place. It wasn't until she spotted several pictures on the walls, most were devoted to the guests that had been there before. Four were dedicated to Hokage and their wives, it was then that she recognized where they were, "Naruto, you got us a table in the Heroes Den?!"

Naruto nodded his smile widened, "Yeah, I heard several people screaming that the food here was to die for, especially their sushi. Since you love sushi and your favorite place hates me, I wanted to bring you someplace more awesome," The whisker marked blonde explained.

Sakura smiled softly, a new sense of love and affection for her boyfriend seemed to well up in her. So it was hard for her to say what came next, "Naruto, you baka, do you know how expensive this place is?"

Naruto blinked a few times looking confused, "What ya mean?" He opened a menu looking at the prices, most were on par with the prices he was charged day to day. "Some of these things on the menu are actually cheaper than the stuff I get in the other stores. I mean, the only place cheaper I've actually seen was in the Land of Waves and they were suffering a food shortage."

Sakura's eyes lowered to the table, tears slowly beginning to water hearing her boyfriend explain the inflated prices the village gave him. The waiter walked up seeing the girl in distress but cleared his throat, "Are you ready to order, Naruto-kun? Mr. Takashiro has expressed his delight at you taking up his offer to dine here and told me to explain to you that all items upon the menu will be dropped to half price for your continued patronage."

Naruto's eyes widen slightly while Sakura's head shot up in surprise, "Why most of these prices I can deal with?"

The waiter pursed his lips and shook his head, "Be as it may, Mr. Takashiro would feel it wrong to charge the son of his former teammate full price for a meal or to anyone he considers special," The man glanced at the rosette haired girl, his mouth turned slightly up at the corners before focusing on Naruto who was doing a quick once over of the menu.

Sakura was floored; she knew Minase Takashiro, he and his wife Imari were the owners of the Heroes Den having inherited it from Minase's mother, Hiroko Takashiro, when she died during the last war. The restaurant itself had been first established by Tenchi Masaki and his wife Ryoko when the Hidden Leaf was founded. The Heroes Den had become one of the most expensive and popular places to eat, catering to mostly to Elite Jonin, the richer merchants, and of course the Hokage's themselves. To find herself in said restaurant with her boyfriend who had just been given a fifty percent discount, she wanted to jump out the chair and hug the waiter for such kindness.

The young coupled ordered, Sakura getting the sushi platter while Naruto decided to try the full course BBQ Chicken dinner he heard his sensei had ordered. "Naruto, it's nice that you brought me here, but any place would have been fine, so why here?"

Naruto rubbed the back of his neck, "I promised to find you someplace new so you can have sushi, didn't know it had other things to eat here as well and everyone I heard talk about this place said there was really good food. The prices looked right," He shrugged casually.

Sakura's eyes flashed, "That's because everyone else inflated their prices intentionally. How many stores actually have let you buy at cost?"

The whisker marked blonde frowned slightly in thought, taking into account what he was paying for this meal since it had been discounted. What many of Naruto's academy instructors overlooked was the fact the blonde was a mathematical genius even more so than Shikamaru, it was how he managed to pull off his pranks so well. He could do even the most complex equations in his head; he stunk at written work because he had trouble reading it, everything never looked right. What he didn't know was that many of the academy instructor's would cast minor genjutsu on his work. So, the math problem Sakura had given him was relatively simple. "Only four stores have given many anything at cost, Ichiraku Ramen Shop, the book store, the scroll store, and the ninja weapon shop," The blonde looked down sadly. "Damn fox," he muttered.

Sakura took his hand and gave it a gentle squeeze, he looked up at her and smiled softly. The rosette haired girl had suffered somewhat in recent months too, many had tried to overcharge her and it was only through a subtle hint of her running to the Hokage or her mother that prevented a repeat. Instead she got two new phrases to add to the list of words she hated, 'demon whore' and 'monster lover'. But she didn't care, Naruto had made her happier in the last four months than she had been in the previous six years chasing after Sasuke. "So is there another reason for you trying to wine and dine with me, Naruto-kun?" She smiled coyly, rubbing her fingers over his knuckles, the blonde boy blushed slightly.

Naruto loved seeing the various smiles his girlfriend could give, her bright ones, her shy ones, her smirks, even her fake fangirly ones, but the one he loved above all others was this one the coy smile, he could just feel the mischief and love behind it that made his heart flip excitedly. The only ones he didn't like were the fake, sweet smiles, mostly because it was a prelude to a lot of pain. These, however, were becoming rare and usually only happened when he did something totally idiotic or reckless. Then there were the sad ones, he hated these not for any other reason except that she was trying to hide something from him, it was this smile that got him searching for a new place for her, so she could have her favorite food.

The whisker marked genin thought a moment, trying to remember if he had a reason outside of taking her someplace special to eat. One thing popped into his head while he was staring at picture on the wall behind Sakura, it showed his father and mother ironically. The picture showed his parents smiling with his mother holding up a victory sign to the camera, underneath the photo it read, _**In Honor of Minato and Kushina's engagement may they have a long and happy life together**__. _Naruto noted both his parents looked young in the photo at least sixteen years or so. _I wonder how long their engagement lasted. They look about sixteen in that photo means it was taken before the Third shinobi war which was cool, maybe I should ask Hiryu-sensei or the old man when they actually got married. Not like it's going to matter, I want to surpass my dad, best way to start would be to get engaged way before he did, believe it! _This determined thought was put in the back of the blonde genin's mind as Naruto and Sakura's meal arrived.

XXX

A heavy sigh was the only thing Hiryu could do as he looked at the table before him, seven men and women out of nine representing the comings and goings of the civilian life within the walls of the Hidden Leaf sat before him. The men and women before him represented the most prominent parts of the village's economic structure. They made the standards to which everyone below had to adhere to, what prices to set for goods, what trading agreements to make, and of course how to make a certain whisker marked blonde feel as unwanted as possible. Three people were currently missing from this impromptu meeting, Mebuki Haruno, Minase Takashiro, and the Third Hokage. The first two were members of the civilian council and the Third was there to oversee what went on and to either agree with the policy and allow it, or to veto the policy. The fact that two of Naruto's supporters were not present and the Third Hokage was not here to object to the meeting outright, meant a witch hunt of some kind. "Better talk fast, I don't see your colleagues or the old man, so whatever you have to say better be quick and not pointless."

"Watch your tone jonin, we can make your life hell," A fat looking woman stated coldly.

Hiryu raised his eyebrow at her before smirking, "Please, if this was an official council meeting, Councilman Takashiro, Councilwoman Haruno, and the Hokage would be here. This is some sort of fishing expedition, most likely involving my sensei's son."

"How can you claim that de-boy as Lady Kushina's son," A scarred man stated in a growl.

"Because she gave birth to him," Hiryu said gesturing with his hands in a 'no duh' movement. "And before you start spouting that he's the demon incarnate, don't. I've had enough of your stupidity and ignorance, now please get to the real reason I'm here or I'm leaving, because obviously this has nothing to do with the village, isn't that right, Danzo?" the S-class jonin asked glancing at one of the shadows. An elderly man dressed in robes and bandages emerged from the shadows, his face set in stone showing no emotion. "Paranoid much, you old fart?" Hiryu sneered.

"You wish to know why you are here, fine," The old war hawk responded, ignoring the jab. "It has come to our attention that you acquired the Uzumaki clan vault, we wish to obtain its contents for the village."

Hiryu's eyes narrowed a second before he shrugged, "Don't have them gave them back to the clan they belong to."

The fat woman launched from her chair, "There are no more of the Uzumaki clan in this village, it died with Kushina, and we demand you give us the contents!"

"For your information, there are in fact five members of the clan are still in existence, Karin Uzumaki birth country Grass, Nagato Uzumaki birth country Water last known location the Hidden Rain," Hiryu's eyes narrowed again when he saw Danzo's skin seemed to lighten a moment at mentioning Nagato's name. "Naruto Uzumaki, currently residing within this village," He heard several protests but moved forward, "Tayuya Uzumaki currently a guest of Orochimaru, finally Tsunade Senju currently off somewhere getting drunk and gambling away the Senju fortune, the very person this council allowed to leave sighting post-traumatic stress from wartime events. I gave the scrolls to Naruto by the orders of the Fourth Hokage and last named clan head of the Uzumaki in the event of their death."

"Y-You gave a priceless treasure and something that would ensure the Hidden Leaf's dominance over all the other villages, to the demon brat!" The scarred man shouted.

The plain faced jonin looked hesitant, "When you say it like that," Hiryu's face turned into an evil smirk, "I should have done it sooner. You people treat sensei's son like he's a plague, spending all your time trying to bring about his downfall, eventually he'll be sitting right there," He stated pointing to the empty Hokage chair. "A day I can't wait to see, you all kissing up to him, praying he doesn't remember all the lies you've told about him, how you've bribed his teachers to keep him stagnant and useless," Hiryu turned his eyes cold looking at the right people present. "Minato-sama would kill you all for treating his son the way you've done, Kushina-sensei on the other hand would prank you first before killing you slowly. She'd want everyone to laugh at you in your humiliation before slowly peeling the skin from your body for treating her child the way you've done. If Mikoto was alive, she'd use her Sharingan to enhance the torture," Hiryu began walking to the double doors leading out of the council chambers feeling all but Danzo quaking in fear. "The Uzumaki vault is Naruto's by birthright, and rest assured, the Hokage will hear about you going behind his back trying to obtain it," Before anyone could react Hiryu pulled his sword free, seemed to vanish from his spot for a second before reappearing and opening the door. "I will also inform him that you've not disbanded your ROOT like you were order to, Danzo," With that, Hiryu left. Shortly after he closed the door several bodies appeared dropping to the ground headless causing the fat woman to shriek in fear. Danzo showed no outward emotion, but on the inside he was seething in rage.

Not only had his Shisui Sharingan not worked, but his contingency of ROOT in the room had been slaughtered easily. He had heard rumors that the Himura boy was on par with Itachi in terms of speed and strength, he had no idea how accurate this was. _Now he's made things extremely difficult, what's worse is that rebellion involving Hanzo was led by an Uzumaki, if I'm implicated with helping Hanzo things could be worse for me.__ The old war hawk thought about the Uzumaki in the snake Sannin's clutches.__ I knew Orochimaru was a fool but he's drawn renewed attention to him_. The old war hawk watched his fellow conspirators with disdain, their power play had gone wrong in the worse possible way. The hokage will be informed and all will probably be facing time with Ibiki and Anko, two very loud supporters of Naruto, especially Anko. Having ties of friendship with Hana Inuzuka, and seeing much of herself in the Uzumaki child, made her very protective of the boy, even though he didn't know it. _It would seem I will need to lay low for the foreseeable future._

XXX

Naruto sat back and reflected on the meal he had, different from his usual ramen fest, it was buy and large better, the smoky tartness of the sauce, velvety texture of the meat, side dishes were rich and flavorful. He never had food quite like this before and now he understood his sensei's love of the food as he wiped his mouth looking over at his beloved girlfriend who looked to be in nirvana at her own meal. "Man that was good, believe it!"

Sakura giggled, nodding as she finished her last piece, "No after taste, I think I found my new favorite place for sushi."

"Good as Ichiraku's ramen that's for sure," The blonde genin sighed, sitting back up, suddenly feeling nervous, not knowing why. But considering what he planned to do before the food came, he had a hunch and was more than a little worried about the reply. "Um, Sakura-chan I wanted to ask you something, it's kind of, um, important," He said, suddenly cursing himself, scratching the back of his head nervously.

The rosette haired girl blinked, watching his endearing nervous twitch, she giggled slightly. "What is it, Naruto?"

Naruto shifted slightly in his chair, suddenly feeling like he was back in the academy undergoing the genin written portion of the exam again. _Wow, sensei was right, this is the toughest moment in my life. Makes becoming Hokage almost feel like a cake walk_. He took a few more quick breaths before plunging in head first, "Um, would you like to, um, marry me?"

Author's Note: Oh yeah this is cruelty at its finest a cliff hanger on Naruto popping the question, before anyone argues the point of them being too young or this romance moving too fast, my fic my decision. Plus they've been together six months, they're adults in the eyes of the village and they aren't going to get hitched right away. I've heard of engagements lasting nearly ten years before the couple actually married. Heck I've known non-married couples who've stayed together for ten plus years and have three children. So Naruto doing this is within the boundaries of believable if Sakura hadn't been a fangirl for the first half of the series and constantly at war with herself in Shippuden. I mean she spends more time during Shippuden bouncing back and forth between Naruto and Sasuke it isn't funny. Sure it adds depth to the character whose heart is fighting with itself over her first crush and her newer romantic interest but it also frustrates the audience screaming at her to make the decision and its only near the end of the Fourth Shinobi War where she comes more into her own and we actually see her leaning more and more toward Naruto. Bible Black and Tenchi Muyo references are included, lol.


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 15

Ayame once told him there are three universal joys in the world; the first is seeing your child being brought into the world. The second is to marry the person you love, and the last is to have that person either accept your proposal of marriage or ask for your hand. When one or all of these joys are made you feel like you could take on a thousand Kage class ninja, leap into the heavens, or run faster than the Hiraishin being used on the battlefield. Naruto watched with a numb anticipation as Sakura slowly got up from her seat, walked around the table and gently sat down in his lap. He tilted his head up to look at his girlfriend's neutral face nervously, before she leaned and proceeded to try and suck his face off with one of the most passionate kisses they have ever shared to date. The moment they could breathe again, "Um, is that a yes?"

Sakura's eyes danced, she touched her forehead to his, "Yes, a thousand times over, my baka," She whispered feeling him slide his arms around her waist. After a few minutes, there was someone clearing their throat, they looked up at the waiter.

"This is a restaurant, not a hotel," The waiter smirked watching them.

XXX

Yakumo Kurama was currently looking down at the scroll, one of nearly twenty, that Naruto had given her from the Uzumaki clan vault. Each showed various genjutsu all with great illusion effects and were a joy to study. As she studied the one before her she thought back on her new team, she was happy at the second chance to be a kunoichi and Kurenai apologized for her not being the sensei she should have been.

"Interesting," Came a slow, lazy voice. Yakumo turned seeing a boy with his hair done up to look like a pineapple.

"Pineapple hair, lazy look, and the Nara clan insignia on your jacket, you must be Shikamaru, Naruto and Sakura talked a lot about you and the others of team ten," The genjutsu user said cheerfully.

The lazy Nara blinked, "And how do you know Naruto and Sakura?"

"I'm their new teammate, Yakumo Kurama," The brown haired girl bowed slightly at her introduction, her attention going back to scroll.

"Troublesome, what happen to Sasuke?" The Nara asked.

Yakumo shrugged, "Don't know, only that Hiryu-sensei asked me to be a part of Squad Seven, we're going on a mission tomorrow to find Tsunade Senju and bring her back to begin to reestablish the Uzumaki clan and heal me."

Shikamaru gave her a once over while calculating what she said, "Naruto has a clan, didn't see that coming."

Yakumo smiled slightly, "Not just any clan, his is one of the three founding clans, I mean, look at every Jonin and Chunin in the village, they wear the Uzumaki clan insignia on their shirts and flak jackets."

The Nara thought about it and groaned mentally not putting that bit of information together himself, "Meh, troublesome."

The Kurama heiress sighed looking at the lazy genius, "What isn't troublesome for you?"

"Watching clouds," the Nara smirked.

Yakumo giggled slightly before nudging him, "You're terrible, Shikamaru," He shrugged looking at the scroll. "Naruto's clan has this massive vault Hiryu-sensei was tasked by his sensei to find and bring the contents back for her, she died same night she gave birth to Naruto, and well, sensei gave the vault contents to Naruto," She explained to Shikamaru's unvoiced question. "Naruto gave me about twenty different genjutsu scrolls from the vault."

The Nara nodded, "What kinds are there?"

"A lot, makes some of the ones I learned under Kurenai-sensei feel almost tame," Yakumo said softly before glancing coyly at Shikamaru, "How's your mother by the way?"

"Troublesome as always," Shikamaru stated looking up at the sky. "She probably would like to see you again. Been what, a year since you visited?"

The Kurama heiress looked down, "I've had a difficult year, but I promise to visit Yoshino-obasan after the Chunin exams."

Shikamaru nodded, he wouldn't admit it and he would go to his grave denying it but he had missed her the last year. She kind of fit his description of a plain looking girl, she wasn't drop dead beautiful like Kurenai, Ino, or even moderately good looking like Sakura, but she wasn't downright ugly like that Ami girl at the academy or any of Ami's goons. He found her attractive in that plain look, again he never admit it and Choji often teased him for it. _Only time I ever found Choji truly troublesome._

XXX

Alpha males, Hana heard that many generations could go by and there be only one in a given pack at any given time. Within the Hidden Leaf she had seen an abundance of alpha males, both in previous generations, in her generation and in her brother's generation. Many outside the Inuzuka clan couldn't understand the definition of what it truly meant. She groaned pleasantly and wincing at the same time, feeling a certain part of her fiancées anatomy nestled softly in her nether regions. Alpha males too, many outside her clan believe were considered prime breeding stock, this was only partly true. In reality, an alpha male to an Inuzuka was simply the perfect candidate to be a mate. It was simply a more bare bones version of what every man or woman sought, none of the exhaustive courtship rituals most people go through, it came down to perception. The Inuzuka young woman looked up at her sleeping fiancée, she sighed in contentment, she had endured heartbreak and an internal struggle with herself before she accepted him. A part of her knew she would never replace Shizune as his first crush but she also knew she had come far from than being a simple crush, four years of testing the engagement to see if he would sniff around had proven his status as the alpha. "Sore?" He asked in a mumble, eyes slowly opening.

"Always a good ache and you know it," She smirked wiggling her hips feeling it stiffen. "Besides, it'll be our last time for a while," She muttered softly running her fingers along his bare shoulder.

"Hmm, Chunin exams getting closer by the day. My team is ready for it, just want to give Yakumo an easier time, heard the second exam is a search and survival mission in training ground 44," Hiryu stated.

Hana looked up her eyes widened, "What lunatic would set up an exam in the Forest of Death?"

The swordsman chuckled kissing her, "I guess you're allowed to call her that, you are friends."

The wild looking young woman groaned, slumping her head back on to her fiancées chest, "Anko. I shouldn't be surprised, is Ibiki doing the first exams?" She felt him nod and sighed heavily, nuzzling into his chest and wiggling her hips again, groaning slightly at what she was feeling. "You sure your team will make it through?"

"They'll be fine, I know each of them will be more than ready in a month, I'd be more worried about the rest of the teams. Asuma and Kurenai can't really train their teams as much as they want to; Clan heirs are usually trained by the Clan," Hiryu gently grunted feeling Hana's hips begin to rock. "I'm lucky Yakumo's clan left her alone to train by herself, Sakura's clan is mostly civilian and Naruto's is almost extinct, minus a few scattered remnants. I got lucky I can actually train my students most of the time, poor Kurenai has to ask your mom whenever she needs to teach Kiba something that isn't clan based."

Hana slowly sits up her eyes slowly loosing focus, "I don't wanna to talk anymore!"

The plain faced jonin snickered, "What are you going to do with me gone for a month?"

Hana dropped back down glaring into his eyes, her own filled with lust, "Shut up and take your bitch!"

XXX

The team members of squad seven and Jiraiya were waiting at the northern gate of the hidden leaf waiting for Hiryu to arrive. Sakura and Yakumo were talking animatedly going over their previous evening, Yakumo squealing in joy upon hearing her teammates had gotten engaged. "Seriously, he took you to the Heroes Den, had a lovely dinner and he proposed, that is wow," the Kurama heiress said her eyes wide. "I've never heard of anything so romantic before."

Naruto chuckled softly as his rosette haired fiancée wrapped her arm around his, feeling her sigh in contentment. It was a strange sensation being engaged and knowing at some point in the future that he and Sakura would get married. Granted they had to wait at least three years until they turned sixteen before such ideas came into play. But it was a pleasant thought none the less.

Jiraiya standing off to the side smiled softly, he often wondered if he hadn't gone down the route he did if he could have ended up with the one he loved. He wondered still if he could, he knew it would take a lot of effort, something he rarely did these days outside of his spy network. _Not likely she thinks of me in the way she thought of Dan, I'm her perverted teammate, _the toad sage sighed sadly feeling wistful of so many missed opportunities.

"Yo pervy-sage, what's my second cousin like?" Naruto stated walking up. "I mean Hiryu-sensei says she's a drunk and a gambling addict, but also a great medic-nin, she's your former teammate so you should know more about her than most others."

Jiraiya blinked, looking down at his godson with a small measure of pride; the boy didn't take people's words at face value, just like his mother. "Tsunade is a complex person with a very painful past. It's why she left the Hidden Leaf, your sensei says the things he does because he believed she should have stayed and looked after both your mother and you."

"Well I get where he's coming from, she's mom's older cousin and the woman took off. What I want to know is why?" Naruto asked.

"Her lover and her brother died roughly five years apart from one another, both during the same war," Jiraiya sighed sadly. "And both had the same dream, the same one you, ironically, have."

The whisker marked blonde raised a single eyebrow, "They wanted to be Hokage, cool. But leaving the village isn't an excuse, sounds like she's running away."

"She is running away," The group turned to the voice, seeing the squad leader of team seven walking toward them his face unreadable. "If she wanted help dealing with her grief, she should have gone to the Yamanaka clan for counseling, not run from it like a scared little girl."

The toad sage winced, one of the many things the two disagreed on was handling Tsunade's leaving the village. "What would you have me do?"

"She's a spoiled brat and you should have treated her like one, pulled her across your knee and paddled her ass. Either you or the old man, but no, he and the council see her throw her tantrum crying about how painful it was to live in this village because she lost someone," Hiryu's eyes flashed. "Who hadn't lost someone, it was a fucking war! That's why we're going to find her, the first reason is Yakumo's health and the second is to force her back home. With Naruto as the current clan head of the Uzumaki clan, he can order her back and if she doesn't come back he can declare her a missing-nin and strip her of her family's finances."

Jiraiya's head jerked back to him, "You'd really risk that?"

"She's not a child but if she chooses to act like one we need to treat her as such. She wants to run away from her problems fine, she's not doing it by drinking and gambling away her family's fortune that happens to also be Naruto's fortune," The jonin explained, motioning his students to follow him, Jiraiya watched the group exit before falling into step with them.

"Sure this isn't because of Shizune?" The toad sage asked before he felt the blade tip of Hiryu's sword underneath his chin.

"My past feelings for Shizune have absolutely nothing to do with this, you pervert. I gave up on those long before she left, I'm happier with Hana than I've ever been chasing after someone who wanted nothing more from me than to be a friend," Hiryu's eyes showed rare anger. "How dare you imply otherwise!"

Jiraiya held his hands wincing slightly as Hiryu sheathed his sword to continue walking, "Sorry, that was a low blow."

The plain faced swordsman waved off the apology, "I'm bad mouthing someone you love, maybe if you had the courage to tell her at some point in the past this whole situation would have been avoided."

The white haired sannin sighed heavily and watched Hiryu dropped to a knee having Yakumo climb onto his back. Once the girl was set the group launched into the trees and began setting off at a fixed pace toward one of the first gambling towns that would begin the search for Tsunade Senju.

Author's Note: Some people will criticize the fact that I've copped out on Legacy of the Nine Tails and many of the other fics that I have, simple fact is I lose interest in maintaining them. Mostly because they become a beast and I get overwhelmed with it, writing chapter after chapter is hard especially with diagnosis of being ADD my brain constantly shifts to different fic ideas, it's a rare case that I can actually complete a fic without some form of help Harry Potter and the Shadow Games is an example of a completed fic I didn't need help with. I don't like the idea of shifting my focus on a new fic and not finishing one, I just can't help it. This is why when I found out I had this disorder I started asking for help mostly in terms of a co-writer to keep my interested and not let my fic stagnate to a point where I'll give up on it.


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter 16

"Sensei, you said that Tsunade Senju was using money from the Senju clan to buy sake and gamble with," Yakumo stated softly as the group leapt through the trees heading toward some random town for Jiraiya to get in touch with his spy network and begin searching for the slug sannin in earnest. Hiryu had already made up his mind to train his students as much as he could during these periodic stops, and hopefully his squad would be able to make it back to the village in time for the Chunin exams.

"Yes," Hiryu muttered softly.

"Isn't she the Senju clan head then, I mean she's the only member of that clan left. So you're asking the Hokage and Naruto to block access of money that they shouldn't have access too," The Kurama heiress stated.

The jonin nods and smiled at the brown haired girl's reasoning. "Normally you would be right; however the Senju and Uzumaki clans were joined together through marriage. As such members of the Uzumaki clan were given a small amount of control over the Senju's finances in case of death or fraud, same is said the other way around, Tsunade has partial control over the Uzumaki clan accounts," The Kurama heiress nodded, shifting slightly to get comfortable. "With Tsunade gambling her family's money away, this constitutes the possibility she'll dip into the Uzumaki clan accounts, when her own dries up and considering Lady Tsunade is known for having the worst luck in the Elemental Nations, it's safe to say she could go through her family's money pretty dang fast. This also leads to village instability which is why the hokage became involved."

"So that's why you had Sarutobi-sensei put a block on her account before we left," Jiraiya stated hopping alongside him.

"If she can't buy herself into misery she'll start using her medic-nin skills to earn money, giving us time to not only track her down and confront her but give us a visible trail to follow," Hiryu shrugged.

"It's no wonder Shikaku has troubles beating you in shogi," Jiraiya chuckles.

The plain faced shinobi snorted, "Shikaku tries to think three steps ahead and make strategies against me. While I go into a match already knowing my opponents and what counter-strategies I can implement to whatever my opponent can come up with."

Naruto looked at his sensei with awe, "Can you teach me how to do that, sensei?"

"Of course, Naruto, but first you must acquire, a bingo book from our village and one from another village I suggest asking the Hidden Sand for one," Hiryu explained.

"Why's that sensei?" Sakura asked.

"Other villages will have information on our shinobi, usually from spies that have penetrated our village and as much as we deny such a fact, it is often common knowledge that every village has spies from other villages. We know this and they know that we know this, but we all pretend that we don't know. But everybody knows," Hiryu explains shaking his head with a smirk seeing Jiraiya sigh.

"And these spies don't get caught?" Yakumo asked.

"Wouldn't be very good spies if they got caught, what moron would be stupid enough to reveal the fact they were spying," Hiryu snickered.

XXX

A silver haired teen with glasses sneezed, forcing himself to adjust his glasses and sigh, "So tedious."

XXX

Hana Inuzuka sighed heavily as she bent over to examine Akamaru; her brother's nin-dog, while energetic took after his mother, thankfully. The puppy had another growth spurt which was minor had thrown off his chakra control during a practice session resulting in chakra burns. "It's minor Kiba, nothing to be worried just chakra burns. Time for you and Akamaru to go back to control exercises."

Her younger brother groaned, "Growth spurt again, how many am I going to deal with?"

"At least three more during this year, so be careful not only with your training, but during missions, especially if you use the Beast Clone or Fang over fang," The wild looking vet stated gently patting Akamaru's head.

"I will," Kiba smirked softly noting his sister was walking with a slight limp. "Maybe you should stop training so much your limping."

Hana snickered, "Oh, this limp isn't from training, just my alpha male showing his dominance again."

The younger Inuzuka scowled slightly, "How can you possibly love that guy, he's a nerd!"

The female vet growled at her brother, grabbing him by the collar of his shirt, "Your pig-headedness overlooks the fact that he could go toe to toe with Itachi Uchiha and actually beat him. What do you have against him anyway, regardless of how much he teases you, he does care about you."

"He's not good enough for you!" Kiba shouts. "I don't care if he can beat a hundred Uchiha."

Hana raised an eyebrow before smiling gently lowering Kiba back down to his feet, "Being the overprotective brother, now I see. Well don't worry, Hiryu-kun is a fine mate, just focus on your own mate, has Hinata begun sniffing around you yet?"

The younger Inuzuka readjusted his shirt, sighing softly before blushing at his sister's comments. "No, she's kind of still in shock with the fact that Naruto and Sakura are dating. Only good thing is Sakura doesn't seem to want to rub it in Hinata's face."

"My student isn't that shallow Kiba, you'll do well to remember that," Hana stated, tossing on her lab coat and getting ready to open the clinic for the afternoon shift. The older girl frowned slightly, "She'll stop being my student after they retrieve Lady Tsunade, I can't teach her the advanced medical arts like I wanted to."

Kiba looked at his sister seeing her look depressed, this had happened twice in his life. The first time was when their mother returned from hunting down their father after trying to bring him home. The second time was Hiryu's stubborn refusal to accept her as his mate at first. According to his mother, Hana had been smitten with Hiryu since their days as genin, instead of going for the rookie of the year like many of the girls, she went for the dead last something he couldn't fathom. "I don't get how you or Sakura both are dating the dead last of your years?" the younger Inuzuka asked snidely.

Hana scoffs, "Kiba, you wouldn't understand it, and if you talk about Naruto like that again I'll have you cleaning the kennels with a toothbrush and a tea spoon," The female vet stated seeing Kiba flinch. "Don't ever talk about my sensei's son in that tone in my presence, understand!"

"Why can't I, he's an idiot!" Kiba growled back.

"KIBA INUZUKA!" Both Inuzuka siblings froze, slowly turning to see their mother standing in the doorway glaring with righteous fury at her youngest child. "Hana, your brother is on kennel duty until such time as I see fit to release him from it," She heard her son sputter in protest. "You not only put down one of your own friends, but you insulted the son of founding member of this village and the son of a Hokage."

"What do you mean, how's Naruto the son of a Hokage," Kiba asked looking really confused. "He was treated like crap in school, he couldn't do most of the work, and when he did it looked like shit, yet both you and Hana treat him like he's the alpha male of alpha males."

Tsume smirked softly, "Because he's going to be, his breeding is just that strong. He's the descendant of the Sage of the Six Paths at least that's what Hiryu has found out, currently one of the sole heirs of the Uzumaki clan to which this entire village pays tribute to," she stated pointing to her sleeve. "He's also the son of our greatest heroes, Kushina Uzumaki and Minato Namikaze."

The youngest Inuzuka's eyes widen feeling numb all over, the boy he would pseudo pick on during school and play pranks with, was the son of the 4th Hokage. Granted his friendship with the blonde haired boy had gotten better over the last few months but not enough to keep him from belittling Naruto when he could in private. "Then why are his grades so crappy?"

The Inuzuka matriarch frowned softly, crossing her arms, "Sabotage boy, the only teacher in that entire academy that hasn't disrupted Kushi-chan's son in some way was Iruka. Lord Hokage has gone through the school and well, there are a lot of the teachers either looking for new jobs or in prison."

"Besides, Hiryu-kun has been fixing the problems since, you'll be amazed if you meet him during the Chunin exams in a few weeks and see how much Naruto has changed," Hana smiled brightly. She walked over grabbing a broom, a mop, a shovel, and a trash can before dragging them over to her brother. "Get started."

Kiba groaned looking at the kennel cleaning supplies, "Would it help to say I was sorry?"

Tsume smirked, "It does; now you only have to do kennel duty until a week before the exams. You have much to learn pup, especially if you want to win your bitch's heart, one is to never question what she finds attractive."

"Please tell me you would go after Naruto, mom?" Kiba asked.

Tsume snickered, "If I was twenty years younger, then yes, Sakura would have competition for that alpha male, trust me. Any woman sniffing around him will be very happy come time to mate for pups, speaking of which," The older woman turned to her daughter. "When are you and your mate going to give me pups to spoil?"

"Mom, we're not even married yet!" Hana shouted blushing.

XXX

The town that Squad Seven and Jiraiya entered was small; it was here the toad sage would meet with one of his contacts and get the information on Tsunade's whereabouts. Squad Seven went to the closest inn to stay while waiting for Jiraiya to meet with said contacts, "Here Yakumo, you can have a room to yourself, and Naruto and Sakura, here's one for the both of you," Hiryu tried to keep the smirk off his face as the young engaged couple's faces turn dark red.

"S-Sensei?" Naruto asked, blushing heavily. "Couldn't I get one with you or pervy sage and let Yakumo and Sakura-chan share a room?"

"Normally that would be the case, however you and Sakura are engaged, Naruto, it would be in both your best interests to sleep not only in the same room but the same bed together. This is to get you comfortable with each other in every setting," the jonin explain with a slight smile.

The two shuffled their feet together before nodding at their sensei and quietly going into their room, still sporting their nuclear colored blushes. Yakumo raised an eyebrow, "Is that true sensei?"

"Yes and no, yes in that they will need to get comfortable with each other, no in the fact they had to do it right away," Hiryu snickered. "They have a lot to learn about reading the signs of someone joshing them."

Yakumo sighed shaking her head, she moved to open their room when she felt her sensei's hand on her shoulder. "Sensei?"

"Don't, it'll be alright, they won't do anything before their ready, they'll be uncomfortable at first but by morning they'll be fine and if they are like any true engaged couple they'll enjoy waking up in each other's arms," The plain faced jonin stated, ushering the brown haired girl into her own room.

XXX

Naruto exited the bathroom dressed in his normal shinobi night attire when on a mission, a black shirt with forest green shorts, the reason being it was light and flexible, he decided against wearing his usual silly nightcap mostly because he didn't want Sakura to laugh. Sakura was currently sitting on the bed dressed in a pair of green shorts as well and a red tank top. He couldn't tell if she was really reading the book she had in her hands or not, since it looked like the same page she had been on when he entered the bathroom. Sakura was currently wearing his mother's old engagement ring on a beautiful silver necklace that was around her neck. After the two got engaged, he had asked the old hokage if his mother or father ever left an engagement ring, which had turned out to be the case. The old hokage gave it to him and advised giving it Sakura on a necklace until the two finished growing, then have the ring adjusted to Sakura's finger.

The whisker marked blonde slowly slid in next to her, his nerves slowly calming now that it was just the two of them. "Sakura-chan, what are you looking at?"

The rosette haired girl turned and smiled slightly, "Memorizing the anatomy of the skeleton right now, helps understand how to use medical ninjutsu to mend bones."

The whisker marked blonde watched his fiancée slowly close the book and slide down into the bed next to him before inching forward and laying her head on his chest, "You think sensei was messing with us?"

"Yes, but I don't care if he was or not, I like this," Sakura murmured snuggling against his chest, she felt an arm wrap around her, suppressing a groan of pleasure at the warmth and sliding her leg up against one of his while playing with his shirt. "I can defiantly get use to this." She giggled feeling him kiss her forehead.

"Same here, waking up with the most beautiful girl in the elemental nations every morning, I hit the jackpot, believe it," Naruto murmured slowly drifting off to sleep not seeing the rosette haired girl's blush before falling asleep herself.

XXX

Author's Note: Forgive the ranting again this mostly because of some of the annoyances I've been reading. I'd read a crossover fic that starts out great the story is flowing nicely characters are nice to read then, the bashing starts. I've become so annoyed by it in most fan fics especially in crossovers where the writer takes particular delight in trashing a certain character mostly Sakura, Sasuke, and the Hidden Leaf in general, now the last two I don't care much about, they have good reasons to bash, Sakura's bashing comes usually during the first part of the series when she's a fangirl, calling her a banshee among other terms, I've watched both the dubbed and the subbed versions of the series Sakura does not scream like a banshee, she more or less growls when she gets pissed off at Naruto and that's usually cause by him acting in full idiot mode. Does she ever show Naruto anything other than rage, yes actually several times, during the Land of waves arc, she shows begrudging respect for Naruto when he and Sasuke fight off Zabuza to free Kakashi, she's later floor by him coming to her for help with the tree climbing exercise, she even shows him a rare smile. During the Chunin exams she shows concern for him during the written test willing to volunteer to leave to protect his career not once thinking about how Sasuke would react. During the fight with Orochimaru in the Forest of Death, she was in awe of the courage he was displaying, she also cheer him on both during his match with Kiba and his match Neji even though everyone said both times Naruto was going to get beat. Let's not forget when Sasuke told her that it was Naruto that rescued her and not himself, the smile of pride and adoration was there. But argument is how strongly she reacted to Sasuke defending her from Zaku, me personally if Naruto had woken up first instead Sasuke the reactions wouldn't have been as cut and dry, he wouldn't have waited before confirmation he would have torn into all three sound shinobi. Heck he might have broken that five prong seal just by anger alone. No telling how Sakura would have reacted to it either.


	17. Chapter 17

Chapter 17

Finding Tsunade, would at first, be a difficult task, so to take up the slack that his team would spend hours with absolutely nothing to do, Hiryu began developing a training schedule. Naruto had been given the final stage for the Rasengan while they waited for Jiraiya to finish his scouting and 'research'. To which both he and Sakura would spend time trying to master the A-Class jutsu, getting the rotation and the power to synch up to form the spiraling ball of destruction, that it is known for. While they practice that, Yakumo went over the two taijutsu styles Hiryu had selected for her, these styles fit into her role as a defensive fighter, her task with the team was to provide Genjutsu support and back up to Sakura when the rosette haired was administering medical aide to Naruto or for Naruto should he need to get behind someone in battle to either kill or incapacitate.

The taijutsu the Kurama heiress was using was a hybrid of Aikido and Tai chi, both styles were primarily defensive taijutsu made to divert or redirect an enemy shinobi's assault long enough for her to use her genjutsu to slip away or use her kekkei genkai style genjutsu to cause physical harm to her opponent. Naruto graciously summoned a shadow clone for her to practice on and spar with. Yakumo took a glance over at her teammates and saw them both struggling with condensing their chakra into a ball. Sakura seemed to be faring better, but that was only because she had the control.

Tsunade's trail would only get warmer once the Hokage's suspension of her assets finally hit, and since messenger hawks traveled faster than a person on foot many of the towns that had banks within the land of fire were now blocking access to the Senju accounts.

XXX

Tsunade growled looking at the bank teller, "What do you mean my account is frozen?"

"Orders from the Third Hokage, to suspend your account until you return home," The poor teller looked at her client fearfully as the older woman seemed to get angrier.

"Damn it, sensei!" The blonde haired medic-nin growled. She knew of two ways to make enough to make it to the next gambling town, problem was the first way she absolutely refused to do. Regardless of the fact she was a kunoichi, she hated the assassination missions she did when she was younger where she used her body to get close to her targets. So that left option number two, go to the local hospital and sell herself as a healer, this was frowned upon mainly because it could be tracked. She had no idea what her former sensei had in mind but she knew her former teammate was already looking for her. "Shizune, we need to leave."

"We can't Lady Tsunade, we have no traveling supplies and now we can't get supplies because we have no money," The dark haired apprentice explained to her master.

"Damnit," The blonde woman left the bank muttering to herself looking left then right, her face laced with fear. "Jiraiya is searching for us, sensei put that block on my account to drag me back to that cursed village."

"But why, he's never bugged you before," Shizune asked.

The slug sannin nervously paced not sure what to think, neither had been back since before Minato had taken the Hokage hat and he had only sent them periodic messages on how things were doing in the village and to let Tsunade know that her cousin was doing well. The last message the two had received from Minato a few months before the Kyuubi incident giving her the great news that Kushina was pregnant. Sarutobi never explained what happened to her cousin or the baby. _What's going on, what should I do? _Tsunade, while fearful of being dragged back to the painful reminder of her past, she had plenty of questions as to why her sensei would suddenly interfere in her life when he ignored her before. "Find the hospital Shizune, we'll earn some money enough to stay here for a week or two should be enough time for the pervert to find us and we'll get some answers."

XXX

"She's waiting for us then," Hiryu stated to Jiraiya the moment the toad sage explained that his spies had located Tsunade in the next town over, which was roughly a week away if they traveled at a leisurely pace, three days if they pushed it to assault speed.

"Makes sense, by now her accounts have been frozen so she knows she's being hunted, if she hasn't moved from that town it means she's likely going to force a confrontation," Jiraiya stated sipping some tea while watching both Naruto and Sakura work on the Rasengan, Naruto started using a Shadow clone to help him contain the ball, while Sakura had formed it naturally. _Poor kid's chakra is just too potent for him to control it normally, probably going to need sage training or master the fox's chakra. Still, to master the Rasengan in two weeks is way beyond even my expectations; he's truly your son Minato._

Hiryu rolled his neck before grabbing his gear and pulling out a storage scroll, "Let's push it to assault speed, I need Yakumo ready for those exams and if Tsunade is already using a hospital it makes things a lot easier."

XXX

Squad Seven and Jiraiya arrived in the small town of Zaneku not far from the Hidden Rice and Land of Fire borders. This was where spy reports placed Tsunade and her apprentice Shizune. The moment the group reached the town they split up, Jiraiya and Naruto headed off to the bars, while Yakumo and Sakura went looking into the gambling halls. Hiryu went by himself to the hospital, upon arriving he spotted someone he was both anxious to see as well as loathing at the same time. "Shizune," he said simply, no emotion showing on his face.

"Hiryu," Came his reply, the dark haired young woman stared at him, her own features unreadable. "Did Lord Jiraiya ask you to come?"

"No this mission was mine, I asked the Hokage to put a hold on Tsunade's accounts to prevent her from running and had Jiraiya track her down," Hiryu said calmly.

"WHY?!" The black haired woman shouted. "Do you know what her life was like!?"

Hiryu rolled his eyes, "Cry me a fucking river. Instead of facing her problems like a shinobi she ran, throwing her money away on drinking and gambling, wallowing in her self-righteous, self-pity what's worse you enable her to it!"

Shizune growled softly, "How dare you, I've been trying to get her stop!"

"Great job, you travel from town to town watching her gamble poorly and drink herself into the gutter. This isn't a life Shizune, this isn't even existing," The plain face jonin just sighed heavily, finding it refreshing he could yell at the woman that little over twenty years ago he followed around like a lost puppy. It confirmed something that he was worried about, it showed that the feelings he once had for her were all gone now.

The dark haired woman stared in shock, this wasn't the teenager she left twenty years ago, "You've changed Hiryu, why do this?"

"Same reason I did before, I protect my family. Kushina-sensei was my mom in every way but blood, and right now I'm looking after the family she left behind. Her son, her nieces wherever they are, her older brother if I can ever find him, and her cousin. I'm using tough love on that woman to get her back to who she was before her brother and lover died, for Kushina-sensei and Naruto. If you truly want to help her, stay out of our way," with that Hiryu turned and left the hospital.

XXX

Tsunade was not having a good month. First, she couldn't win at blackjack to save her life, than her bank accounts were frozen. Now she had to do medical ninjutsu to earn enough money to at least get drunk, which meant no gambling until her stupid teammate found her. But the worst part is she didn't think her current situation was Jiraiya's or her sensei's idea. While it was in the realm of possibility for her sensei to do, she doubted he would. Jiraiya, while crafty, had this hands off policy regarding her and her personal life as much as it was annoying it was also endearing. No, this kind of strategy screamed of only two people, Shikaku Nara and Hiryu Himura. She immediately ruled out Shikaku, mainly because the lazy genius would consider it too troublesome to implement. But Hiryu on the other hand had complex motives on top of complex motives, what one person would think is troublesome; he did it to prove them wrong. _Just like a certain red-headed jonin sensei that trained him, _the blonde haired woman irritably thought downing her sixth saucer of sake.

"Ya know that stuff pickles your liver, believe it!" A young male voice stated behind her.

The slug sannin turned to see a blonde boy which caused her to nearly drop her saucer. She was currently staring at a boy who looked like Minato back in his genin days, minus a few differences, this boy had whisker marks on his cheeks and his face was a bit thinner. She frowned slightly, looking at her sake bottle. "This must be some strong stuff, I'm hallucinating. Go away Minato, it's not funny."

The blonde boy's frown however was strange, it looked like something she would see on Kushina, "Pervy-sage, you sure this is her?" The blonde boy asked, turning to stare behind him.

"Yeah, that's her," Jiraiya walked up, his brows twitching at the boy's blunt critique of his pass time. "Why do you need to call me that?"

"Hiryu-sensei told me you like to peak in the women's bath house and you write those weird Icha-Icha books Kakashi reads," The blonde boy explained.

Tsunade activated her medical ninjutsu to neutralize the alcohol in her system, and with growing clarity came both awe and shame. "What's your name, gaki?"

"Naruto Uzumaki," The whisker marked blonde stated, which in turn caused the older blonde to mentally wince enough that it made it to her eyes. "Yeah, so cousin, where have you been all my life?" He asked with a frown which only deepened when a certain toad sannin let out a perverted giggle. "Get your head out of the gutter, Pervy-Sage!"

"Naruto, asking Jiraiya to stop being perverted is like asking Kami to stop making it rain," Hiryu responded as he, Sakura, Yakumo, and Shizune with Ton-ton appeared.

"I knew it," Tsunade grumbled glaring at the plain faced jonin. "What do you want, Hiryu?"

"Several things, most of which I can achieve on my own, thanks," Hiryu smirked, crossing his arms over his chest. "What I want is nothing compared to what I need, I need you to returned to the Hidden Leaf, not as a member of the Senju clan but as a member of the Uzumaki clan," He raised one finger to click off a point, "I need you to help Yakumo here with any medical treatments that can build up her constitution to the point of being a healthy teenage girl," His second finger went up followed by a third, "and lastly your sensei has declared you his successor."

Tsunade's eyes flashed at the last one, "I refuse both going back to the Hidden Leaf and becoming Hokage. I rather be hunted down than, take that death sentence," She growled only to freeze feeling a sharp point at her neck. "

"If it wasn't for the fact Naruto, would never forgive me, I'm half way tempted," Hiryu whispered into the woman's ear. He leaned back slightly raising his voice conversationally. "You think you have it so bad, that you are the only one who lost loved ones," Hiryu's voice was cold as ice. "Naruto has spent the last thirteen years experiencing horrors you can only dream of, I lost my father to an ambush during the war, I lost my mother to her own grief. I lost my surrogate mother to a hundred story biju, the same night that Naruto lost his parents. Do you think for one moment you're better than us?"

Tsunade was shaking not out of fear, though she was shocked at the amount of speed the younger man had. No, her reason for shaking was that of grief and regret, "How can you possibly go on?"

"Because as much as I have lost, I've gained back more. I have my fiancée who loves me so much and her family; I have my squad to whom I commit my future to. You've lost a lot Lady Tsunade, but you still have much left, you have your apprentice who cares a great deal for you. You have your dimwitted, perverted teammate still here and cares for you probably more than you imagine, and you have your sensei. Plus you still have family, one cousin standing before you and three others scattered to the four winds," Hiryu sheathed his sword eyes slowly warming. "Sensei once told me she wanted to be the first ever female kage; she gave up on that dream when she fell in love with Minato-sama. As her student I wish to give you her dream of being the first female kage as a member of her family."

Tsunade sat quietly tears falling down her cheeks. It wasn't until she felt two warm arms wrap around her that she looked up and saw Naruto embracing her that the dam broke. All the wrong decisions she made in her life, all the anguish and grief crashed down around her, she vaguely remembered a member of the Yamanaka clan stating she needed to let her grief out before she could heal. However instead of letting it out she bottled it up until she became bitter, and less like her old self. With a simple gesture of love and compassion from a boy she just met, yet had ties to, she finally had a way to let her grief go.

XXX

Author's Note: The Uzumaki clan is by far the most mysterious thing in Naruto, it has ties to the Sage of the Six Paths, the Uchiha, and the Senju clans, it was a well-respected and feared clan. But it only has three confirmed clan members left, Naruto, Tsunade, and Karin. Nagato was a member of the clan, but died after his clan mate knocked sense into his head. With that said, is there any fics out there besides my own that depict Naruto, Karin, and Tsunade as a family and not in the romantic way.


End file.
